



Book 



Copyright^ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 




HEALTH AND BEAUTY-MAIDEN MEDITATION FANCY FREE. 




WOMAN'S GUIDE 

TO 

Sexual Knowledge 

OR 

What Every Woman Should Know 



CONTAINING 

FULL INFORMATION ON ALL MATTERS PERTAIN- 
ING TO THE GENTLER SEX ; LOVE, COURTSHIP 
AND MARRIAGE; NATURE AND MYSTERIES 
OF REPRODUCTION, ETC., ETC. 

A POPULAR TREATISE FOR 

Maidens, Wives and Mothers 

DIRECTIONS FOR THE CURE OF DISEASES PECULIAR 

TO WOMEN ; PHYSICAL CULTURE ; TREATMENT 

OF THE COMPLEXION AND HAIR ; HOW 

TO CULTIVATE BEAUTY, ETC. 

THE WHOLE FORMING A 
Complete Medical Guide for Women 

EY THE CELEBRATED WRITERS AND AUTHORITIES 
ON MEDICAL SCIENCE, 

Frederick Wilson Pitcairn, M. D. 
Elizabeth J. Williard, M. D. 




/ \' K 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two CoDies Received 

AUG 23 1906 

Copyright Entry 

COhA t+,/?oG 

CL/\SS O. XXc. No, 
CbPY B/ 



ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR i906, 3Y 

HORACE C. FRY 

THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, AT WASHINGTON, D. C, U. S. A. 



T© THE 

CHARMING GIRLS 

WHO ARE TO BECOME 

WIVES AND THE LOVING MOTHERS 

©F THE 

BRIGHT CHILDREN 

WHO WILL FILL 

OUR HAPPY HOMES 
THIS WORK IS RESPECTFULLY 

Dedicated 

: ,.-■ BY THE AUTHORS 

m THE HOPE THAT ITS PERUSAL WILL NOT ONLY 
ADD TO THEIR HAPPINESS BUT ASSIST THEM 
.IN PERFORMING WELL THEIR PART 

>':"■ * IN THE 

JOURNEY OF LIFE 




HIS most attractive work contains important truths that 
affect the vital interests of every woman. It is filled 
with information which should be possessed by every 
member of her sex, but of which, unfortunately, the 
great majority of women are in entire ignorance. 

The Love which is the source of all domestic enjoy- 
ment, and which shows its beauty in the pleasures of 
Courtship, and finally blossoms into Wedded Bliss, is 
pictured in all its wonderful charms. The ideas that most young persons 
entertain of Love are both romantic and fanciful. It is often a prescribed 
topic either of conversation or advice, and all that is known concerning 
love and courtship is, therefore, derived from the fictions of poetry or 
the high -wrought description of novels. 

This work portrays the delights of this master passion, and shows 
how to preserve it in its purity and to enjoy the happiness which it affords. 
What should be known by those about to marry and by the newly mar- 
ried gives peculiar value to this work and renders it an indispensable 
companion in every home. 

There is a strong prejudice against the discussion of this subject ^ 
and when the peculiar delicacy attending it is considered, we cannot 
wonder why such a prejudice should exist. Even the most chaste and 
refined observations are apt to give offence ; or, at least, to excite alarm 
in a sensitive mind. The delicacy and the difficulty of the subject we 
admit ; but we ask, is it not preposterous, is it not ruinous to the best 
interests of mankind to leave the whole discussion of this delicate subject 
to men of loose and abandoned character ? 

Is it wise to leave young persons to derive their notions of love and 
courtship from the exaggerated, false and misleading descriptions with 
which modern literature abounds ? Do not these deceptions da 
seduce, mislead and corrupt thousands of the young, thoughtless and 
inexperienced ? 

Is it not infinitely better, then, that we should innovate a lit 
the opinions, and feelings, and, as we think, prejudices of the wc 






Yin 



PREFACE. 



and break that mysterious and profound silence which regards the discus- 
sion of this topic as either indecorous or mischievous ? 

Therefore, every female should be familiar with the mysteries 
of her organism, and seek to arrest those abnormal influences which tend 
to the detriment of her natural vigor and perfection. She should know 
when and whom to marry — when and how often to bear children. She 
should be the guardian of her own procreative functions, and the right 
to refuse sexual commerce when considered repugnant to the instincts of 
Nature, or when found inimical to her health, beauty and longevity ; she 
should have the option to bring only lovely and healthy offspring into 
existence, while she should be taught to look upon sickly and mal- 
formed issue as a crime against Nature, and a grevious offense in the 
sight of mankind. 

To facilitate such humane and philanthropic purpose — to elevate the 
sex to her rightful and natural position from the degraded creature of 
man's lusts and caprices — to show her how she may retain her loveliness 
and physical and mental powers to the latest period of human life — and 
at the same time improve the future races of man, by reformatory and 
recuperative elements bearing upon the present generation of men and 
women, worthy of the consideration of every true lover and friend of our 
species. 

For this end this work was written. Accordingly the authors would 
have their views and sentiments deliberately weighed, and judgment passed 
upon their performance as it maybe deemed beneficial or prejudical to the 
general well-being of society. 

They sincerely believe with the Sacred Text, "That righteousness 
exalt eth a nation, and that sin is a reproach to any people" They would 
especially inculcate the purest virtue and morality, and frown down every- 
thing partaking of the prurient^ sensual and revolting. They would save 
the race from utter debasement, degeneracy and extinction, and replenish 
the earth with an order of humanity of the highest physical development 
and the most transcend ant intellectual and spiritual attributes, and thus 
restore the human creature to his destined position of an Angel of Light, 
created and fashioned in the image of Deity, the Great Father and Ruler 
of universal physical and spiritual existences. 




CHAPTER I. 

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 

Pleasures of Courtship — Look Before You Leap ! — Marriage Instituted for 
trie Happiness of Mankind — Power of Generation — All Persons Dependent on 
Others — A Sacred Compact — Physical and Moral Education of Children — Fidel- 
ity to Each Other — Age for Marrying among Ancient Nations — Parents at a Very 
Early Age — Old Women who Become Mothers — Marriage Conducive to Health and 
Longevity— Precepts on the Subject of Marriage — Many Infirmities that are not 
to be Considered . , IT 

CHAPTER II. 

PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 

Errors Concerning Reproduction — No Reliable Proofs of Virginity — Condi- 
tions for Healthy Offspring — Proper Time for Cohabitation — Motives that Influ- 
ence the Majority of Mankind — Power of Conjugal Love — Disproportions of Size 
— Irritation of Mucous Membrane — Evils of Early Marriages — Evils of Late 
Marriages — Physical Debility of Infants — Conjugal Unions should Result from 
Liberty of Choice — Transmission of Disease — Old Men and Young Women — 
Authority of Parents and Guardians — Courtship Attentions should always be 
Honorable • . - '28 

CHAPTER III. 

HAPPY AND UNHAPPY" MARRIAGES. 

Greatest of All Temporal Evils — Many Disappointed Swains and Lassies — 
Mutual Love and Affection the First Duties of the Married State — Dyspeptic 
Husbands and Snappy Wives — Similarity of Temper — Cares of Married Life — 
Happiness Dependent on the Discharge of Duties — Patience under Domes 
Troubles — Sanctity of the Marriage Vow often Violated — Criminality of Men — 
Personal Charms — Poverty and Deformity — Miserable Comforters — Home, Sweet 
Home — Amiable Temper and Sound Judgment — Hasty Temper and Inexpedient 
Alliances 58 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 

Purity of the Blood — Functions of the Lungs — The Diaphragm — Shu., g 
the Air out of the Lungs — Effects of Tight-Lacing — Compression of the Ribs 

ix 



x CONTENTS. 

and Abdominal Walls— Absurdities of Fashion — The Narrowed Waist — The 
Perfect Nude Figure — Individual Taste and Judgment — Curvature of the Spine — 
Difference between Girls and Boys — Costume of Greeks and Romans — Fat Waists 
— The Hip Bones — Victims of Miniature Waists — The Spine and Muscular Weak- 
ness — A Reproach upon Nature 46 

CHAPTER V. 

THE FEMALE PELVIS. 

Situation of the Pelvis — Its Shape and Prominent Parts — What the Abdomi- 
nal Cavity Includes — Fallopian Tubes and Ovaries — Differences between the 
Male and Female Pelvis — The Peritoneum — Age at which the Pelvis is Fully 
Developed — Napkins Applied to Infants — Injury from Constriction — A Deformed 
Pelvis — Rickets and Softening of the Bones 61 

CHAPTER VI. 

FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 

Internal and External Organs — Mons Veneris — External Labia — The Clitoris 
— Excessive Length — Delicate Mucous Membrane — Hymen, or Vaginal Valve — 
The Vagina — Unnatural Membranous Folds — Uterus, or Womb — Various Parts 
of the Womb— Appendages of the Uterus — Movement of the Cilia — Blood Vessels 
and Nerves — -Ligaments of the Uterus — The Fallopian Tubes — Pink Layer of 
Tissue — An Important Ligament — Movement Caused by Contract! on — Two-fold 
Office of the Tubes — Adhesions and Inflammation 67 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE HUMAN OVARIES. 

Glands that Form the Female Ova, or Eggs — Ovasacs, or Graafian Vesicles — 
Structure of Graafian Follicle — Ovary like a Honey-comb — Office of the Ovary — 
Low T er Animals and Reproduction — Weak Parents and Unhealthy Offspring — 
Origin of the Graafian Vesicle — Discharge of Ova Periodical in the Human 
Female — Development of New Ova — Period of Rupture of Follicle and Escape 
of the Ovum — Changes that Take Place — A Common Stimulus — Dischatge of 
the Ova without Sexual Congress 83 

CHAPTER VIII. 

EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 

Extirpating the Ovaries — The Ovum Developed into an Embryo — Two 
Stages of Existence — Number of Ova — Few Ova Ripen at a Time — How the 
Ovum is Conveyed Along the Passage of the Fallopian Tubes — Changes After 
Impregnation — Division of the Yelk — Offices of the Fallo'pian Tubes— When 
Impregnation is Most Likely to Take Place — Size and Weight of a Fowl's Egg — 
How the Egg is Pertected 92 

CHAPTER IX. 

NORMAL PROCESS OF MENSTRUATION. 

Menstrual Colics — Careful Treatment for Girls — Critical Period of Youth — 
Good Nourishment Required— Errors of Ignorance — Causes of Abnormal Derange- 



CONTENTS. xi 

ment — Habits of Women of Fashion — Absurd Attempts to Conceal Effects of Dis- 
sipation — Nervous and Sexual Excitement — Walking the Best Exercise — Mind 
and Imagination — Victims of Excessive Study 1^1 

CHAPTER X. 

OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 

What is said by Professor Eoomis — What by Dr. William Hammond — What 
by Dr. Clark — Effects of Close Application— Sad Story of a Healthy Girl — The 
Pride of the Family — East Stages of Disease — Exposure to Wet, Heat or Cold — 
Injuries from External Pressure — Uncleanness to be Avoided — Sources of Health 
and Disease — Excitement of the Passions — Vain and Harmful Imaginings — Value 
of Occupation — Causes that Interfere with Menstruation 108 

CHAPTER XI. 

WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

Facts and Opinions of Former Writers — A Subject for Wonder and Admira- 
tion — Vital Power Derived from the Parent — Vital Principle in Birth — Reproduc- 
tive Function in Man — Male and Female Forms Contrasted — Influence of 
Various Temperaments — Prominence of the Lower Brain — Office of the Uterus — 
Principal Power of Propulsion — Comparison of the Vigorous with the 
Weak — Microscopic Examination of Spermatozoa — Absurd Theories of Former 
Times 119 

CHAPTER XII. 

WONDERS OF GENERATION.— (Continued.) 

Precise Period of Impregnation Not Known — Old Theory of Conception- 
Established Facts — Prevention of Conception — False Speculations — Causes of 
Unnatural Generation — Number of Children at One Birth — Resemblance Among 
Families— Color of the Parents — Transmission of Disease — Marks and Deformi 
ties — Curious Freaks of Nature — Finest Possible Progeny — Different Typ, 
Men — Peculiarities Extending through Successive Generations — Physical and 
Mental Training — Regulating Color of the Colt — Effects of Violent Emotion . 131 

CHAPTER XIII. 

PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 

Suppression of the Menses — Shape of the Abdomen — The Quickening — 
Presence of Milk in the Mammae — Morning Sickness — Signs of Pregnancy 
According to the Months — Motion of the Child — Number of Days for I a — 

Practical Advice — Exercise and Diet — Violent Emotions to be Avoided — E 
Mental Disturbances — How to Treat Forebodings and Gloom of Mind . . . L48 

CHAPTER XIV, 

MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

Vomiting After Second or Third Week — How Stomach Troubles are Ag 
vated — Child Not Affected by Stomach Derangements — Unnatural Longings — 
The Most Effective Treatment— What the Diet Should Consist of— Fru 3 
Coarse Food— Flatulence and Colic — Use of Domestic Medicines — Treatment for 
Hemorrhoids — What Occasions Shortness ot Breath — Palpitation ot the Heart — 



xii CONTENTS. 

Dangers Connected with Fainting — Congestive Headache — Sleeplessness — Signs 
of the Death of the Foetus — Periodical Habit of the Womb — Remedies for 
Threatened Abortion 157 

CHAPTER XV. 

LABOR— ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 

Articles Needed by Mother and Child — A Monthly Nurse — Nurses that 
Worry their Patients — How to Prepare the Bed — Notifying the Physician and 
Nurse — Two Stages of Labor — Use of Cathartics — Company to be Excluded — 
Directions to be Observed — The Afterbirth — Why the Child Does Not Breathe 
— Treatment of the New-born Babe — Danger of Milk — Use of Chloroform — Saving 
the Patient from Exhaustion — Medical Skill Indispensable. . . . • .... 175 

CHAPTER XVI. 

LACTATION OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 

Natural Mode of Feeding — Distention of the Mother's Breasts — Remedies for 
It—Causes that Affect the Milk— Quality of the Food— Articles of Diet and 
Medicine — Use of Nipple-glasses — Symptoms of Overnursirg — Mother's Milk the 
Best Nourishment — Malformation of the Nipple — How to Develop the Flow of 
Milk — Ointments Mixed with Minerals — When the Wetnurse is Needed — Teach- 
ing the Child Regular Habits — Reasons for Children's Crying — Best Time for 
Weaning the Child — Cold Air and Gathered Breasts — Sore Mouth and Eyes . 191 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

Those who Conform to Judicious Rules have only Blessings to Expect — 
Morbid Impulses at this Period — An Illusion Destroyed — Less of Food and Stimu- 
lants — Best Kind of Diet — Forming Habits of Intoxication — Advantages of a 
Healthy Skin — Necessity of Exercise — Curious Effect of the Mind on the Body — 
Nervous Irritation and Sleeplessness — Peevishness and Ill-temper — Getting Well 
too Soon — Charms of Mature Life — Peace and Tranquility of Mind .... 210 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

Delayed Menstruation — Symptoms of Suppression — Hygienic Treatment — 
Predisposing Causes — Debilitating Maladies — Effects of Long Continued Sup- 
pression — Dangerous Hemorrhages — Self Examination — Remedies of Proved 
Value — Difference between Retention and Suppression — Due to Organic Causes 
— Signs of Chlorosis — Effects of this Disease — Curable with Proper Treat- 
ment 222 

CHAPTER XIX. 

DISEASES OF WOMEN— (Continued). 

Too Great a Discharge at Menstruation — Normal Amount Dependent on 
Constitution and Temperament — How the System is Weakened by Menorrhagia 
— Accidental Causes — Deficiency of Vitality— Remedies that are Recommended 
— Painful Menstruation — Capacity to Endure Pain — Symptoms of a Violent 



CONTENTS. xiii 

Character — Ovaries Involved — Condition During Intervals — How to Obtain 
Relief — Keeping the Body at Rest — Leucorrhoea or "Whites'" — Constitutional 
Disturbance — Exposure to Heat or Cold — Course of the Disease — Effect of Long 
Continuance : — Malady Often Neglected 232 

CHAPTER XX. 

DISEASES OF WOMEN— (Concluded). 

Causes of Prolapsus or Displacement of the Womb — Weakness of Ligaments 
Supporting this Organ — Disagreeable Sensations — How to Treat Displacements 
— Weight of Clothing to be Hung from Shoulders — Deluded Women who Declare 
they Never Dress Tightly — Anteversion of the Womb — How to Treat It — 
Retroversion of the Womb — The First Thing to be Done — Inflammation of the 
Vagina — Weight and Fullness — Common to All Periods of Woman's Life — Pain 
and Soreness — Causes of Inflammation — Various Morbid Conditions — Hot Water 
and Sitz Baths 248 

CHAPTER XXI. 

HEALTHY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 

Relation of Mind to Body — Sound Mind in a Sound Body — As the Parents 
Are, So Are the Children — Mental Development — Reason and Action — Four 
Stages of Life — Perfection of Woman's Organs — Common Mistake in Education 
— Dangerous Vices to be Avoided — Ideal Commandment of Christianity — Temp- 
tation and Theft — Instinct of the Animal Life — Joining Children in their Sports 
— Why Children Lie — Mother and. Son — "Smart'' Children — Teaching Young 
People the Golden Rule — Miss Beecher on Early Education '2o\) 

CHAPTER XXII. 

PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 

Health Largely Dependent on the Skin — Frictions and Bathing — Effect of 
Cold Water Plunges — Cold, Tepid and Warm Baths — Plain Rules to be 
Observed — Nothing Indelicate About a Girl's Romping — Skipping the Rope 
— Regular Hours of Eating — Abundance of Sleep — School Days — Children 
Study too Much — Health of American People — Woman's Rights and Woir 
Muscle — Development of the Mind — Flocks of "Sick Crows'' — Inconsistency 
of Human Nature — What Dress is Intended For — Apparatus for Heating Houses 
— Effect of Pressure and Tight Lacing 270 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

Irritation — Intestinal Canal — Fear May Produce Convulsions — 1" ects 

of Fright — Different Temperaments of Children — The Human Face — Derange- 
ment of the Stomach — Inflammation of the Brain — Evidence of Impoverished 
Blood — Teething — Period of Cutting Teeth — Use of Mild Laxative— Treatment 
for Convulsions — Directions Concerning Milk *64 



k o 



xiv CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

DISEASES OF CHILDREN.— (Continued.) 

Cholera Infantum — Symptoms — Causes — First Step in the Treatment — 
Slaughtered by Dosing with Medicine — Scarlet Fever — Three Varieties— Symp- 
toms Very Pronounced — Malignant Form — Absence of Eruptions — How to Treat 
the Fever — Prompt Remedies Required — Measles — Symptoms — Eruptions — The 
Attack — Remedies for the Disease — Croup — Cause — Usual Symptoms — Treatment 
— Whooping Cough 294 

CHAPTER XXV. 

PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 

Necessity of Pure Air — Horrors of a Small Pox Room — Importance of Sani- 
tation — Sunlight as an Agent of Health — Disease Caused by Darkness— Sleep a 
Necessity — John Wesley an Early Riser — Absurdities of Dreams— Baths of Dif- 
ferent Kinds — Repairing Physical Waste — Importance of Exercise — Effects of 
Excessive Fatigue — Benefits of Walking — Injuries Caused by W T altzing — Advant- 
ages of Rowing— Directions for Doctoring Sea Sickness 305 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

FEMALE CLOTHING. 

Nature's Selection of Coverings for Animals — Heat Radiates from the Body 
— How Plants are Protected — Superfluous Article of Dress — Clothing of Special 
Parts of the Body — The Trunk — Extremities — Apparel Made of Flannel — 
Deformed Feet — Precepts Concerning Dress — Prejudice Against Wearing Wool 
—Clothes Bespeak the Man 321 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 

Appliances and Machines for Physical Development — None are Absolutely 
Necessary — Science of Breathing — Checkley on Lung Expansion — Exercises for 
Arms and Shoulders — How to Train the Muscles — Famous Swedish Movements 
— How Women Should Dress — Fexible Action Necessary — How to Sit Grace- 
fully— " Manual of Arms "—Thrusts— Lunges 331 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN. 

Weak Lungs and Imperfect Digestion — Walking in the Open Air — Easy to 
Learn How to Breathe — Exercises Requiring Vibration — Another System of 
Physical Culture — How to Strengthen the Lower Limbs — Supposed Consump- 
tive Lived to be over Ninety — How the Blood Gets the Air — The Pleura — Struc- 
ture of the Heart 345 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

FEMALE BEAUTY. 

Value of Female Beauty — Prized by the Ancients — Wonderful Influence of 
Women — Strange Customs of Savages — What is Natural to Women — No Woman 
Need be Ugly— Girls Expect to be Married — Little Offered in Exchange for Mar. 



CONTENTS. xv 

riage — Health and Beauty to be Coveted — Scandal Loving Old Maids — Troubles 
of the Shy Girl — Girls who are Called Stupid — Plain but Witty — Disappointment 
of Suitors — Absurdities of Dress — Old Women who are Terribly Thin . . . 354 

CHAPTER XXX. 

IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 

Any Kind of Dress Becoming to Some Persons — Vulgar Taste — Individual 
Taste Suppressed — Tied to Ignorant Fashion — Taste should Harmonize with 
Character — Simple Laws to be Observed— Nude Figures in Sculpture and Paint 
ing — Novel Forms of Attire — Too Many Flounces and Furbelows — What is 
Becoming to Different Persons — Evils of Extravangance 371 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

WOMAN'S HAIR HER CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

Modifications of Style — Facial Outlines — Admired of All Beholders — Struc- 
ture of the Hair — Root and Shaft — Varieties of Color — Corresponds with Color 
of Skin — Indications of Temperament — Samson's flowing Locks — The "Bear 
Woman" — Hair Charged with Electricity — Hair Distributed over the Body — 
Special Purposes Served — Beautiful Hair Praised by the Poets 383 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

STYLES OF WEARING THE HAIR. 

Particular Nations Distinguished by Mode of Dressing Hair — Early Period — 
Mediaeval Period — Tresses Perfumed and Pomaded — Fashion in Queen Elizabeth's 
Reign — Ancient Mode of Dyeing the Hair — Ringlets and Ribbons — Good Sense 
and Taste — Crape Cushion and Ostrich Feathers — Jewish Women — Spanish 
Artists 399 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

MODERN METHODS OF DRESSING THE HAIR. 

Mistakes in Hair Dressing — Suggestions for Grace and Beauty — Oriental 
Customs — Eike the Tail of a Peacock — Chinese Females — Black, Glossy Ring- 
lets — Manner of Tingeing the Hair — Dancing Girls of India — Style of Empress 
Eugenia ' 4"7 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 

Baldness and Premature Gray Hair — Deficient Action of the Bulb — Causes 
of Hair Suddenly Turning Gray — Lines by Lord Byron — Trick Played on a 
Spanish Officer — The Ghost in Hamlet — Baldness and its Causes — Common 
Among Men — White Hair and Old Age— Varieties of Disease— Hygienic Treat- 
ment — Cleanliness and Friction — Locks Straight and Flaccid — Mrs, C 
Poem— Decline of the Health of the Scalp— The Shuttle Movement— Scalp Mas- 
sage — How to Shampoo the Hair 414 



xvi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

Artificial Teeth Used by the Ancients — Staining the Teeth of Boys and 
Girls — First Teeth Cut in First Two Years — Period of Teething a Trying One — 
Common Neglect of the Teeth — Bad Habits of Breathing — Antiseptics Recom- 
mended — Rinsing the Mouth — Substances to be Avoided — Causes of Premature 
Decay — What is Seen Under the Microscope — Pure Sugar and Sweets — Structure 
of the Teeth — Cause of Toothache — Commencement of Second Set — Use of 
Tooth Powder — Treatment of the Gums — Structure of the Skin — Main Object of 
Treating Burns — Perspiration According to Weather — Unhealthy Countenance 427 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

THE HEAD AND FACE. 

Beauty of the Human Head — Vicious Practice Among Nurses and Mothers- 
Eruptions on the Forehead — Facial Expression and Charms — Meaning of the Eye 
Colors — What Forms a Beautiful Eye — Peculiarities of Sight — Various Defects 
of Vision — Cure for Squinting — Remedy for Ophthalmia — How to Strengthen 
the Sight — Effects of Irritating Substances — Treating the Eyebrows — Well- 
formed Nose Essential to Beauty — Handsome Grecian Nose — Napoleon's Idea of 
the Best Nose — Beautiful Mouth and Lips 446 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE NECK AND LIMBS. 

Delicacy and Beauty of the Arm— Character Indicated by the Thumb — 
Neglect of the Hands — Distorted Joints and Fingers — Treatment of the Finger 
Nails — What to do for Chilblains — Magic Cure for Warts — Health and Beauty of 
Feet — Feeble State of Circulation — Treatment of Corns — Pumice Stone -and 
Adhesive Plasters 462 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

Some Don'ts for the Sick-room — Cracked Ice — Nourishing Drinks — Prepara- 
tions with Eggs — Broths for Sick Persons — Beef Tea — Gruels for the Sick — Solid 
Foods — Oysters and Sweetbreads — Sweet Dishes — Jellies and Custards — The Med- 
icine Chest — Good Cooking — Antidotes for Poisons 478 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

THE BEST COSMETICS. 

The Face the Index of the Mind — Smoothing Out Wrinkles — Face Humors 
Repulsive — Daubs of Paint and Enamel — Injuries from Hard Substances — A 
Beautiful Bosom — Directions for Massage — When to Avoid Cosmetics — Prescrip- 
tion for the Complexion 501 




THE GUARDIAN ANGEL 




Courtship and Marriage 







CHAPTER I. 



OURTSHIP, in which the gentleman 
does the agreeable, is a very pleasant 
thing. It is so delightful in itself 
that many persons never go further. 
It consists in much billing and cooing, in 
serenading, and in walks by the lonely 
lake, or unfrequented path, in the moon- 
light stroll upon the lawn, or the whis- 
pered conversation in the recess of the 
window, in interchanges of love, eternal 
fidelity, etc. Love makes all harmonize. 
The coy maiden, it is true, will be very 
shy for a while, but " faint heart never 
won fair lady." 

Yes, a certain brisk confidence must 
be assumed, for a lady delights in an ardent 
lover, and many such have triumphed 
when others have failed. For this reason, perhaps, successful villains, 
who have much practice in the wiles that gain woman's heart, are more 
likely to gain their ends than he who truly loves, but is deterred bv bash- 
fulness ; while, in many cases, woman has loved " not wisely but too 
well." Yea, under the fairest pretenses, women have been deceived, and 
under a promise of. marriage have permitted the familiarities which 
prudence, virtue and custom alike reserve for the marriage state. Thus, 
many a fair confiding girl is lost to purity, virtue and happiness, 
robbed by a heartless villain of all that is most dear to woman, while 
might have shone as a star in society. 

17 




18 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 

Courtship is a perilous period, inasmuch as human nature is not 
altogether perfect. Many there are who have begun well. They have 
continued to do well for days and months, or perhaps for years ; but at 
length giving way to a momentary impulse, the saddest of all accidents 
has occurred, and such as cannot be repaired. Let no one think 
that we exaggerate. Courtship is but a thorny state after all. It has 
three stages. The first when the parties meet, and ogling interchange of 
glances, and a few hurried words take place. The second, when the 
wmole frame thrills with the exquisitely delicious and melting emotion of 
the first kiss ! when the engagement ring is placed on the finger. 

The third, is that in which " the consummation so devoutly to be 
wished," by plighted lovers who long for the wedding day and the sweets 
of dear felicitous love in the marriage state. 

The first two stages are attended with many hours of pleasure and 
few moments of pain — many enchanting meetings and regretful part- 
ings The third stage is not without danger, and should be pushed on 
to a conclusion as rapidly as circumstances will allow. 

LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP. 

In courtship, there should be a great degree of respect paid to each 
other by the affianced parties, who are one day to become man and wife. 
They should u look before they leap," count all the cost, and have their 
minds fully made up, to all the consequences and responsibilities which 
the married state involves. They naturally will think that all is to be 
joy and gladness, peace and " bliss — exquisite bliss," in the possession of 
each other. 

Experience, however, has shown to many, that happiness is not 
a plant of quick growth, and many who might have averted it, with 
prudent foresight, have had to lament an ill-assorted marriage ere the 
" honey-moon " had waned. Otherwise, and upon the whole, perhaps 
courtship is a state of much felicity, and one which the wedded pair will 
look back to with delight, if in it they have had mutual respect and 
esteem, and still maintain the integrity of such true sentiments and 
fidelity. Thus the enjoyment of reciprocal love is full of bliss on the 
threshold of matrimony which is yet an unexplored region. 

This constitutes courtship. Hence, the first step must be made by 
the man, for the initiative should not be taken by the fair lady, for it is 
indelicate, unusual and unnatural, except perhaps in Leap Year ! The 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 19 

male must woo, while the lady must be wooed in order to be won. 
Madame de Stael, speaking of courtship, says : — 

" How enchanting is the first gleam of intelligence with her we love ! 
Before memory comes in to share with hope, before words have expressed 
the sentiments, before eloquence has been able to paint what we feel, there 
is in these first moments a certain kind of tumult and mystery in the 
imagination, more transitory than happiness, but still more heavenly." 

Marriage is a natural, religious, civil, and legal contract, wisely 
instituted for the happiness of mankind. 

Man was born for society ; his condition, faculties, and propensities 
require that he should associate with other men. At every period of his 
life he stands in need, and wants the assistance of others. If we look to 
the infantile state, we observe that the new-born babe cannot long exist 
unless by the sedulous care of its parents or others, who protect, clothe, 
and nourish it. Were it left naked on the ground, exposed to the 
inclemency of the air, destroyed by hunger, or left a prey to ferocious 
animals, it must speedily perish. If we follow it through childhood, we 
find, that, unless it is directed by the advice of others of its species and 
assisted by them, it would be little better than an irrational animal. 

POWER OP GENERATION. 

When the human being arrives at the adult age, he possesses th e 
power of generation, and is bound to protect, support, and cherish the 
individual who co-operates with him, in perpetuating his species ; and 
hence originates society. 

Finally, when old age commences, the same imbecilit} r , the same 
infirmity recurs as in infancy ; therefore, if society did not exist, the 
human being would fall to the ground, would be affected with various 
diseases, unalleviated by remedies, he could have no food, and must be 
destroyed by hunger. 

It therefore follows, that the condition of man, at all periods of life, 
requires the care of his fellow creatures. His faculties, reason, sens 
voice, gestures, and capacity for learning the arts and sciences, require 
the benefits of civil society. The offices, by which we are bound to all 
other men, arise from the duties of humanity, or draw their origin from 
society. 

Domestic society is that which exists between certain individti 
who, by relationship, or contrast, form one family, which is necessary to 



20 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 



man, and was destined for him by nature ; for, without this, the human 
race could not be propagated or preserved. Domestic society is again 
divided into conjugal, paternal, and filial. 

Conjugal society is a perpetual compact between man and woman to 
live together in mutual love and friendship, and to aid each other by 

mutual succor for 
the course of life. 
The diversity of the 
sexes was instituted 
for this purpose ; and 
there is an innate 
desire implanted in 
both to perpetuate 
their species, their 
nature, and to trans- 
fer their property to 
their children. 

Marriage was in- 
stituted by the Divine 
Creator in the time 
of man's primitive 
innocence, as the 
means of his happi- 
ness, and the per- 
petuation of his race. 
The wisdom of its 
institution has been 
felt and acknowl- 
edged in every age. 
Man found by exper- 
ience it was not good 
for him to be alone, 
or to lead a life of 
a proposal — what shall the answer be ? celibacy or isolated 

selfishness. Marriage does not, however, restrict its beneficial influence 
to individuals, but extends to states and kingdoms. " It is," says 
Jeremy Taylor, " the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and 
fills cities, churches, and even heaven itself." It is the primitive source 




COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 21 

of morals and of society, and offers incalculable securities to govern- 
ments. It presents matter of important consideration to the statesman, 
the divine, the lawyer and the physician. 

Of all the social institutions, there is none which exercises so great 
an influence upon states as marriage. Every state is composed of 
families, and these are the result of conjugal unions. The prosperity of 
a nation depends upon the strength and vigor of its inhabitants, which 
are powerfully influenced by the comparative perfection of the marriage 
and bastardy laws. These again have great effect on the morals and 
civilization of society, the rights of persons and property ; and even 
sceptres and thrones are alike dependent upon them. 

It was, therefore, wisely ordained that marriage should be a sacred 
compact, for which those engaging in it ^should forsake their nearest 
relations and friends. The parties contracting it form the strictest union 
and nearest relation that can be established between two individuals ; 
their temporal concerns are identical, and consequently marriage is uni- 
versally considered the source of the greatest comfort and most perfect 
enjoyment on earth, securing all the advantages of sincere friendship, and 
the reciprocal offices of true and tender affection. The parties entering 
into this state, vow mutual love, fidelity, and friendship. 

PHYSICAL AND MORAL EDUCATION OF CHILDREN. 

It was therefore most wisely ordained in the beginning of time, that 
" a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, 
and they shall be two in one flesh." The only motive that virtue allows, 
besides the selection of an individual of the opposite sex, for the mutual 
succor necessary in the management of the affairs of life, are the perpet- 
uation of the species, and the physical and moral education of children, 
so that they may enjoy health, render due homage and reverence to the 
omnipotent and beneficent Author of the universe, and become useful 
members of the human family. 

Marriage was originally instituted between the first of the human 
species, as a religious, political, civil, and moral contract of Divine 
ordinance. Man is a rational and social being, deriving his chief earthly 
happiness from the delights of societ}^ and the interchange of thought. 
It is the interchange of the charities and the sympathies of life which 
gives to human existence its real and only value. Hence, man in a state 
of solitude, or even isolated luxury or affluence, would be the most pitiable 



22 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 

and miserable of creatures. Exposed to the corroding cares, sorrows, 
bitter disappointments, and misfortunes of life, man cannot brave alone, 
and unbefriended, the ingratitude, envy, and malevolence of the world. 

The perfection and sincerity of friendship can only be found in the 
marriage state, where an identity of interest shuts out all petty jealousies 
and vexations, and a unity of thought, sentiment, feeling, and conduct, 
exists. The qualities essential to conjugal happiness are chiefly of a 
mental or moral nature, and not merely of a physical kind, as is unfor- 
tunately too generally the case. 

Marriage was instituted between the first of our species as a natural, 
civil, and religious contract, and has ever since been celebrated with a 
degree of solemnity and importance, suitable to its dignity. It is a sacred 
compact, for which those entering into it, forsake their nearest relations 
and best friends. A mutual love should subsist between them, a mutual 
charity to bear reciprocally their natural defects, tempers, and all other 
inconveniences and infirmities of life. 

FIDELITY TO EACH OTHER. 

They mutually vow to observe an inviolable fidelity to each other ; 
they are bound to labor with indefatigable industry so as to augment their 
means for the sustenance and education of their future offspring, and to 
provide for themselves in their infirmities and old age. " Love,'' says 
Virey, "is the basis of all association, and consequently of human civiliza- 
tion : libertinage, which ruins love, attacks sociality, whilst good morals, 
on the contrary, cement the edifice." 

It is not enough that children should be procreated by parents : they 
are also to be nourished, clothed, and educated ; they should be nourished by 
the milk of the mother, and not delivered to other women, unless in certain 
cases, for nature generally gives the parent the gift required for this purpose ; 
and she never can morally, unless this is withheld, or unless there is 
dangerous infirmity or some great cause, afford to omit it : for by the 
neglect of this sacred duty, the offspring suffers not only great inconve- 
niences, but often loss of health and life, and the mother herself becomes 
liable to diseases, or propagates unhealthy offspring. 

It is well known that when children are committed to the care of 
mercenary nurses, maternal love and tenderness diminish, or almost 
cease ; whilst infantile affection is naturally bestowed on another indivi- 
dual, and finally it scarcely exists towards the parent. 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 



33 



It is likewise an indispensable obligation on parents, that they 
inform their children, by word and example, of the existence, culture, ancj 
love of the Deity, for in infancy we are most tenacious of perceptions , 
and the greatest care should be taken that children do not see, hear, or 
read, unless what is good and right, because their early impressions gen- 
erally continue to old age. For this reason they ought to be kept, 
as much as possible, from the society of servants. Nothing is more ten- 
der, flexible, or susceptible of impressions than the minds of children. 
There is, therefore, great danger lest they be contaminated by indecorous. 




THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 

profane, and obscene ideas. Every one knows the force and truth of this 
statement, and can verify it in everyday life. 

Parents should also take care that their children are kept from i 
ness, the root of all evil, and that at a proper age they are initiated into 
the principles of literature, the arts, and sciences most suited to or even 
above their sphere of life. When they arrive at the adult age, and beo 
members of society, they are expected to discharge their social duties in 
their station in life. 

The proper age of marriage, according to the law of this country 
twenty-one for the male, and eighteen for the female ; but many physiolo- 
gists are of the opinion that the ages of twenty-five and twenty-one v.v 
more accord with the complete development of adults. i held ; 



24 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 

position, "the natural state of man after puberity is marriage;" but this 
is evidently untenable, because the human body is not fully developed 
at this period of life, the different functions are not perfect, and as the 
organs are only in the progress of their growth, the offspring would be 
infirm and delicate ; and the sexes totally incompetent to perform the 
various important duties of parents. It is at, or rather after the adult 
age, that the mind and body have arrived at perfection ; and therefore 
moralists and legislators have fixed this age as the best for marriage. 

The ancient Germans did not marry until the twenty- fourth or 
twenty-fifth year, previous to which they observed the most rigid chastity ; 
and in consequence of which their offspring acquired a size and strength 
that excited the astonishment of Europe. Caesar said that the Germans 
of his time, under twent}^ years of age. were like women, and hence their 
youth allowed time for their growth, and gave their bodies large dimen- 
sions. It is impossible, perhaps, to fix the exact period proper for con- 
jugal union in all cases, because there is so great a difference in the 
growth of individuals, some being more developed at eighteen or twent}^ 
than others at twenty-five. 

PARENTS AT A VERY EARLY AGE. 

Some girls have been mothers at the twelfth } r ear and a half of their 
ages ; and indeed I have attended a labor case of this kind, and have 
heard and read of many others. I have been repeatedly told by mothers 
that their daughters were parents at the age of thirteen and fourteen years. 

The evils resulting from too early marriages are, diminished growth 
and strength of the male, delicate and bad health of the female, premature 
old age, or death of either or both, and a feeble, infirm, and diseased or 
orphan offspring. 

It has long been observed by all physicians, that persons advanced in 
life, provided they are healthful and vigorous, and have observed strict 
continence, procreate much more vigorous infants than the debilitated 
young, who have injured their constitutions ; for, as one of my distin- 
guished correspondents. Professor Dewees, judiciously remarks, "it is 
oftentimes better to be old in years than in constitution." This learned 
ph}-sician also observes, that feeble parents ma}^ propagate robust children, 
but these, according to his experience, which is that of more than thirty 
years, seldom survive beyond the age of manhood, and old age is out 
of the question. 



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CHARM OF BEAUTY AND SUPERB WOMANHOOD. 



GODS GREATEST AND BEST CREATION IS A TRUE, PURE WOMAN, 




SHE SMILES AND SMILES AND WILL NOT SIGH, 
WHILE WE FOR HOPELESS PASSION DIE; 
YET SHE COULD LOVE, THOSE EYES DECLARE, 
WERE BUT MEN NOBLER THAN THEY ARE. 



i 




THE POWER OF QUEENLY WOMAN. 

IN THE PRIVACY OF THE HOME, SCREENED FROM PUBLIC GAZE, WOMAN 
TOUCHES TILE SPRINGS OF ACTION THAT MOVE THE WORU). 




SWEET INNOCENCE APPEALS TO WOMAN'S LOVE, 
THAT JEWEL OF HER QUEENLY MIND, 

AND TELLS HOW NOBLE IS THE HEART, 
THAT PITIES AND IS EVER KIND. 




MAID OF ATHENS, ERE WE PART, 

GIVE, () GIVE ME BACK MY HEART, 

LORD BYRON. 




FAIR AS THE NOONDAY IS HER FACE." 




BLOOM OF BEAUTY AND HEALTH. 



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■>.■--•■■ $ ''.'■■.'.}■ 






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"EYES THAT FEEL AND SPEAK." 

THE MOST IMPORTANT OF HUMAN ORGANS OF SENSE. 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 



9.R 



We see the truth of this statement verified every day : we have only 
to observe the many delicate mothers who daily present their children at 
our hospitals and dispensaries, emaciated and often dying, who generally 
inform us that for some months after birth it was impossible to behold 
more robust, or finer infants. I have long noticed this fact in hospital 
and dispensary practice, and have repeatedly pointed it out to medical 
students. 

There is another position maintained by the profession worthy of 
attention, viz. : that persons who attain extreme old age, often marry and 
have children. It is true that v/omen in general lose the faculty of con- 
ception from the age of forty-five to fifty years in this climate ; but some 
attain the function of maturity much later. 

OLD WOMEN WHO BECAME MOTHERS. 

Pliny states, that Cornelia, one of the family of the Scipios, gave 
birth to Valerius Saturninus, at the age of sixty-two. Valescus, of 
Tarentum, attended a woman in labor at sixty-seven years of age. The 
illustrious and indefatigable Haller mentions the case of a woman who was 
delivered at sixty -three, and of another at seventy. All these authors 
observe that the women whose cases they mention, had menstruated 
regularly, and were not liable to greater inconveniences than those of 
that time. 

It was, in my opinion, fully as rational to mention this conclusion, as 
to deny the possibility of conception after the age of sixty ; — indeed, I 
believe much more so. Nature has equally endowed both sexes with 
organs and functions ; and though she has been more bounteous to man, 
it still remains to be proved whether she has established great disparity in 
the sexual functions. 

Medical practitioners are often consulted by individuals, who are 
anxious to know whether marriage is, or is not conducive to health and 
longevity. It is now universally admitted, that an answer in the affirma- 
tive ought to be given to all healthful and well-formed individuals of the 
male sex, from the adult age to the sixty-fifth year, and sometimes oven 
later. Longevity, however, does not depend upon the benefit of pre 
regimen alone, but on the degree of vitality which is transmitted by 
parents. An individual born of healthful and robust parents ought 
naturally to expect a long life ; but one whoso parents are delici 
or aged, or affected with scrofula, syphilis, gout, pulmonary consumption, 



26 COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE- 

distorted spine, or calculous diseases, will have a delicate and infirm 
constitution. 

Hufeland lays down the following precepts on the subject of marriage : 

ist. u A person should not marry unless into a family remarkable 
for longevity," and, he should have added, free from certain hereditary 
diseases. 

2d. He should not marry a woman advanced in life, delicate, feeble- 
or affected with any deformity or disease, more especially those trans, 
missible by generation, as gout, stone in the bladder, gravel, herpes, 
certain diseases of the skin, syphilis, scrofula, mania, or haemorrhoids. 

3d. The age most proper for women is eighteen years, and for men 
twenty-four or five. 

4th. They must not give themselves to the pleasures of reproduction 
except when the natural impulse is strong, and above all things, avoid 
propagation during drunkenness. 

5th. Every preguant woman ought to be considered as a laboratory 
in which she prepares a new being, to which the slightest physical or 
moral emotion is injurious. 

6th. Women of a nervous temperament, those who are very irritable, 
nervous, hysterical, subject to convulsions, or epilepsy, ought to avoid 
matrimony, as they will give birth to infants who can live but for a short 
time. 

This last precept is liable to exception, because nervous and hysterical 
women are often cured by marriage, and may have healthful infants, as I 
have frequently known. 

Whenever medical practitioners are consulted as to the propriety of 
marriage, they ought to recollect, that they touch a delicate chord of 
affections, that man is more than a machine, so that they should combine 
moral with physical medicine — that science of the heart and mind, with 
which all the learned and well-informed of the profession are well 
acquainted. 

There are many infirmities which are not sufficient to prevent mar- 
ried persons from affording each other mutual succor, and are no bar to 
conjugal union ; but there are others which totally disqualify persons from 
engaging in this contract — such as malformations and incurable dis- 
eases of the genital organs. 

Every individual who entertains a doubt as to his capabilities for 
generation, is anxious to obtain medical advice on his condition ; and it is 



COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 



27 



inuch to be regretted that it is too often the practice of the profession to 
treat the matter with levity or derision. Hence few of the faculty are 
consulted, an unreserved disclosure of the symptoms is seldom given, and 
the inquirer is often fearful that his condition may be made known to his 
acquaintances. Every duly educated physician is bound to secrecy, in 
all delicate matters, and so far from treating his patient with levity or 
carelessness, should consider his case as attentively as any other that may 
come before him. Were this line of conduct generally adopted by the 
medical profession, an immense number of the public would not be driven 
to seek advice from low, ignorant, and unprincipled empirics, who not 
only defraud them of immense sums of money, but also destroy, what is 
far more important, their health. 

The period has at length arrived when sexual diseases obtain as 
much attention as any other class of infirmities, and when the most dis- 
tinguished medical practitioners devote themselves to their study and 
treatment. 





PHYSICAL LAWS 



OF 



MARRIAGE. 




CHAPTER II. 

UCH error exists on the physical laws of 
reproduction among all classes of society, and 
|f| especially in relation to the consummation of 
the marriage contract. This requires to be 
exposed with all the delicacy of which the subject admits, and the pre- 
cision necessary and privileged in medical works. 

The consummation of marriage ought to be effected with gentleness 
and moderation, and not with unrestrained impetuosity, as among brute 
animals ; for if it is accomplished with violence, more or less severe pain, 
laceration, effusion of blood, with inflammation of the external and inter- 
nal genital organs, will be frequently induced. All obstetric authors, 
and all writers on medical jurisprudence, attest the truth of this 
statement. 

Every experienced medical practitioner is aware, that in cases of 
female violation, more or less contusion, laceration, hemorrhage, and 
inflammation are produced, more especially in cases of very young 
persons, and when there is much disproportion between the age and 
development of the individuals. 

When most of these diseases are induced, they are aggravated by the 
frequent repetition of the cause which excited them, it occasions excruci- 
ating pains, and generally produces sterility and bad health. 

There is nothing more certain than that precipitation and impetuos- 
ity in the consummation of marriage often causes, in the very young or 
aged individuals, exquisite pain, from contusion, laceration, etc.; and 
these evils result more from sensual passion than the legitimate object, 
the propagation of the species. In farther support of this opinion I may 
add, that the Jews and many ancients maintained, that the consummation 
of marriage ought to be characterized by the effusion of blood; and this 
28 



PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 29 

is generally the case, but there are many exceptions, as when leucorrhcea 
or other mucous discharges are present, which relax the external genitals 
and destroy the hymen. In these last cases, there may be no effusion of 
blood, on the consummation of marriage, though the individual is a vir- 
gin — a fact well known to every scientific and practical obstetrician and 
medical practitioner. 

It is also well known that pregnancy has occurred and the hymen 
perfect. Again, a woman may be delivered and such cohesion occur soon 
after as to totally impede sexual commerce ; and in certain cases there 
will be copious effusion of blood. In fine, the most respectable medical 
authors have been unable to determine whether women who have been 
depraved twenty or more years, were not virgins, as the presence or 
absence of the hymen is no real proof of virginity. This is the univer- 
sal opinion of scientific and learned physicians in all countries. This 
conclusion has enabled me on many occasions to prevent conjugal separa- 
tions and divorces, and restore domestic happiness. I hold it as an axiom, 
that it is the duty of every author to inform his species as much as pos- 
sible, and thereby to give information, diffuse knowledge, dissipate igno- 
rance, and familiarize truth, and science. 

CONDITIONS FOR HEALTHFUL OFFSPRING. 

It is also a general conclusion among physiologists, that repeated 
conjugal intimacy within a few hours is unprolific, and a mere animal 
gratification. Abstinence for one or more days, and tolerably good 
health, are necessary to most individuals for procreation of healthful 
offspring. According to most physiologists, morning is the best time for 
reproduction, that is, after the fatigues of the preceding da}- are dissi- 
pated by repose, and when the majority of healthful individuals poss< 
most virility. 

As the hygienic precepts relative to the generative function are 
deeply interesting to most individuals, they may be slightly noticed. 

1. It should never be indulged in until there is a natural desire and 
vigorous impulse ; and seldom, if ever, before the adult age. 

2. It ought to be avoided whenever it produces more than temporary 
depression of spirits, or the least debility of the moral, intellect 
physical states, also during intoxication, mania, and when there is vene- 
real or any other disease of the sexual organs of either party. 

3. It ought to be used in moderation, when the individual 



30 PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 

much mental or corporeal exertion, or during recovery from any severe 
disease, when there is a state of debility, or when restorative aliment 
cannot be procured. 

4. It ought to be entirely abstained from during the presence of the 
menses, the child-bed evacuation, which continues for nine, twelve or 
more days after delivery, and only used moderately and occasionally 
during pregnancy and suckling. It ought to be avoided in all painful 
diseases of the generative organs. It is also particularly injurious 
immediately after taking food, and until digestion is completed, which is 
from two to three hours afterwards. 

There can be no rule laid down as to the proper exercise of this 
function, as this will depend on age, habit, occupation, situation, climate, 




THE RIVER OF LIFE. 

season, aliment, and numerous other moral, physical, and external influ- 
ences, which are capable of modifying this function. 

Every pregnant woman is the depository of a new and feeble being, 
at first imperceptible to the human eye, though the future statesman, 
philosopher, or emperor, and which is powerfully, though indirectly, 
influenced by the moral and physical conditions of the mother, or by 
her state of mind or body. I shall, hereafter, minutely describe the 
hygiene, or precepts for the preservation of female health before mar- 
riage, with a view to woman's well-being, as well as that of her offspring, 
and those relative to the function of reproduction, pregnancy, parturition, 
the child-bed condition, and lactation or suckling. 

It would occupy by far too much space in a work of this kind were 
I to discuss fully the various topics connected with this part of the sub- 
ject, as the motives which influence matrimonial contracts, the true 
source of human happiness, of vigorous offspring, and of a moral state 



PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 81 

of society. These, and many other questions relating to reproduction, 
are referred to the moralist and legislator, although they have the most 
powerful influence on the health of parents and their children ; and on 
this ground I shall briefly notice them as a physician, 

The motives which influence the majority of the world in contract- 
ing matrimonial unions, are generally false, selfish, and most detrimental 
to the procreation of sound and vigorous offspring; such as ambition, 
wealth, rank, title, interest, a love of independence, of an establishment, 
a desire to escape parental restraint, anger, a determination to disinherit 
relations, disdain for a faithless lover or mistress, necessity, obligation, 
passion, imitation, and very rarely the only proper motive, pure and 
virtuous affection. It is also generally admitted that parental authority 
cannot reasonably or morally compel alliances when the inclination of the 
individual most concerned is opposed ; although we see too many forced 
and unhappy marriages which are to be ascribed to this cause. 

POWER OF CONJUGAL LOVE. 

It is scarcely necessary to observe, that love is implanted by the 
Deity in human beings, all grades of mankind have felt the power of this 
passion — it is the same in all, or, more strictly speaking, in almost all, 
for it is alleged that some few have never felt its influence. It is equally 
powerful in the palace and in the cottage ; it is universal, or very nearly 
so ; it glows in almost every breast, and it has been sung by the sweetest 
bards of ancient and modern times. Its power so strongly attaches two 
individuals, that no human law or intervention can separate them ; for 
though united to others, they never can be happy, nor their offspring 
vigorous. 

As a general rule it may also be laid down, that parties about to 
contract matrimonial unions ought to be of the adult age, and in good 
health. Man and woman ought naturally to perform the act of marriage 
when the body has acquired all the development of which it is susceptible. 
Nature always tends to perfection in all her operations, and assuredly a 
feeble being and one imperfectly grown, cannot be the source ot a sound 
and vigorous generation ; while, at the same time, the premature exercise 
of certain functions essentially debilitating even to individuals fully 
developed, cannot but remarkably retard the growth and vigor of pers< as 
under the adult age, when carried to excess. 

Premature, ill-assorted, and late marriages, are highly injurious 



32 PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 

the procreation of vigorous and healthful infants, and to public morals. 
It is also a fact, that premature exertion of the generative function is 
most injurious to the health of the individual and offspring. Agricul- 
turists are so well aware of this fact, that they invariably prevent the 
premature intercourse of the inferior animals. 

It is also right to state, that there ought not to be an extreme dispro- 
portion in stature between those who engage in matrimonal unions. A 
delicate, slightly-formed, small woman, whose pelvis is small, ought to 
hesitate in marrying a large robust individual, as the offspring will be 
large, produce great suffering in coming into the world, frequently require 
the use of artificial aid, and sometimes mutilation, while the health and 
life of the mother may be injured and destroyed. This is the fate of 
many girls of small stature, who are seduced to become mothers at an 
early age, as twelve or fifteen years, and, of those from thirty-five to forty, 
both of whom generally purchase the pleasures of maternity at a very 
dear rate. The hip and other bones which form the cavity through 
which the infant has to pass into the world are not sufficiently developed 
in extreme youth ; and the ligaments and muscles which cover them are 
rigid after the age of thirty-five, in most women. 

DISPROPORTION OF ORGANS. 

When there is a great disproportion between the reproductive organs, 
the generative function cannot be performed. Thus, excessive size, 
thickness, or length of the virile member, may render sexual intimacy 
excessively painful, or indeed impossible for some time, with very young 
persons, or those of small stature. 

I have also been repeatedly assured that sexual approach had been 
productive of pain for two and three months after marriage. Infecundity 
was the result in some cases, and sometimes inflammation of the womb, 
which was succeeded by painful menstruation, barrenness, and finally by 
cancer, or some of the many other ulcerations of the internal or external 
genitals. 

With respect to the extreme narrowness of the vulva, if there be the 
slightest aperture, conception may happen, and the vagina dilate spon- 
taneously during pregnancy, or it may be dilated by instruments or 
incision. 

It is a fact that the genital function is as imperious in the human 
species, at a certain period of life, as the digestive, but ought to be exerted 








******** >a * fc *' '.jmT-M 





THE FIRST WHISPERINGS OF LOVE. 



PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 33 

at all times with moderation, to preserve health, and procreate healthful 
new beings. It is well known that rigid continence is seldom observed 
about the age of puberty, and for years afterwards by the male sex, as the 
accumulation of the seminal fluid in its receptacles will excite the whole 
of the genital organs during walking and sleep, and often terminate by 
spontaneous and involuntary emissions. These, when frequent, as well 
as all venereal excesses, disorder the mind and body, induce sadness, 
ennui, disgust at life, extreme lowness of spirits, melancholy, and even 
loss of reason ; whilst natural sexual enjoyment excites and exhilarates 
vitalit}', improves the mental faculties and corporal functions. 

It is also important to state, that the baneful habit of exciting the 
organs under consideration, often arises from disease or a morbid state of 
remote tissues, at an age when amorous impulse cannot exist, and this 
self-abuse is too often continued until the adult age. 

IRRITATION OF MUCOUS MEMBRANE. 

Infants at the breast, whose sexual organs' are so imperfectly 
developed, and who can have no sexual desire whatever, often contract the 
habit of frequently touching these parts. This apparent phenomenon is 
easily explained by physiology. The sexual organs are lined by a 
mucous membrane, similar to that which covers the lips, throat, intesti- 
nes, and lungs ; and irritation in any point of this membrane may derange 
every part of the body, which is covered or lined by a continuation of it. 
There are few infants who do not suffer from irritation in some part of 
this membrane, induced by numerous causes, as teething, improper food, 
or cold ; and the effect will be irritation or inflammation in the eyes, ears, 
nostrils, throat, lungs, or stomach and bowels, and also in the genital 
passages, as every one of these parts is covered by mucous membrane. 

But the habit of touching the genital organs acquired in infancy, 
often continues to the age of puberty, when these parts become more 
developed and highly sensitive, and render it almost inevitable. In other, 
and unfortunately in most cases, this habit is learned by example or 
intuition, more especially by allowing grown persons or adults to sleep 
with children, or by the depravity of some who have the care of children 
and youth, as servants, ushers, or tutors in schools or families, or those 
contaminated by it. The bad effects of it on health, on the mind and 
body, and especially on the source of human existence, have been forcibly 
described by physicians of all ages and countries. 
3 



34 PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 

It was Held, by some writers, that the age of puberty was intended 
for marriage ; that animals copulate at this age, and that therefore nature 
points out this time for propagation. 

In reply it is urged, with more reason, that neither the mind nor 
body of man has acquired its perfectibility for many years after puberty ; 
and that the sexes at this age could not perform all the duties of parents 
efficiently. Common sense and observation are opposed to the opinion, 
that a giddy youth at the age of puberty, with down on his chin, could 
communicate a perfect vitality to offspring, or discharge the paternal duties 
required for the physical education of infants. 

The same objection may be urged against a girl at puberty becoming 
a mother ; and, in addition, that the disorders of pregnancy, the fatigues of 
labor and of suckling, would be much more than her constitution could 
sustain. Conjugal unions at this age, before the moral and physical 
states are developed, would also be influenced by impetuous and ungov- 
ernable passion, and the facilities of prolonging it would lead to satiety 
disgust, debility, and sterility. 

EVILS OF VERY EARLY MARRIAGES. 

Early marriages are admitted, by moralists and physiologists, to be 
serious evils. The author of " Marriage " makes the following very judi- 
cious remarks on the subject : — 

" Very early marriage is, in our opinion, a serious evil. Acting 
under the impulse of headstrong passions, or caprice, or dissatisfaction^ 
young persons too often prematurely rush, thoughtlessly and blindly, into 
engagements which, in after life, become matters of deep and painful 
regret. The fairy visions of love's paradise now vanish ; and the sober 
realities of life, its cares, its difficulties, and its positive evils soon lead to 
discontent, heartless repinings, and, worse than all, to a growing mutual 
indifference. Would that such cases were either rare, or only specula- 
tive ; but the fact is otherwise. No wonder that families are ill-governed, 
children ill-managed and their affairs ill-directed, when the helm is 
intrusted to unskilful and inexperienced hands. 

" Is it possible, we would ask, that wives of sixteen, or eighteen years 
of age, should possess that discretion, prudence, and wisdom so essential 
to enable them to govern households, rear children, and form their tem- 
pers, and their principles ? It would be well if young wives were humble 
and modest enough to place themselves under the guidance and direction 



PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 55 

of some prudent well-informed matron, as their friend and mentor. But 
of this enough. A settlement in life offers an immediate exaltation in 
public opinion, independent of moral worth, or virtuous conduct. It is a 
rank obtained without exertion, and preserved, too often, independent of 
virtue. 

u From these observations we are unwilling that it should be sup- 
posed that we advocate marriages deferred till fortune shall have been 
acquired, or rank attained. On the contrary, we believe that such mar- 
riages seldom realize the anticipations which are formed of them. If an 
age must be stated below which marriages ought not to be contracted, we 
would fix it at twenty-five for men, and twenty-one for the female sex. 

EVILS OF VERY LATE MARRIAGES. 

" This would find each party in the full vigor of their energies, with 
some moderate acquaintance with the world ; and with some experience 
and discretion in the management and guidance of family affairs. When 
marriage is unreasonably deferred, the heart, losing the elasticity of 
youthful ardor and hope becomes blunted by the vexations and dis- 
appointments of life, and is seldom the subject of disinterested love, and 
genuine affection. The tastes, habits, and feelings, then settled and fixed, 
are little disposed to accommodate themselves to the peculiarities of 
others." 

The assertion is not true, that animals copulate precociously ; those 
in a state of nature seldom do, and the few that are domesticated are the 
exceptions. The ancient legislators and philosophers opposed early mar- 
riages. The laws of Lycurgus enacted that men should not marry before 
the age of thirty-seven, and women not before the age of seventeen years. 
Xenophon and Plutarch explain the spirit of these laws, on the grounds 
that they were intended to secure the most vigorous offspring, and power- 
ful population. Aristotle held that a husband ought to be twenty years 
older than a wife : he ought to have said ten, as the former disparity is 
now properly considered too great. 

Late marriages are also highly detrimental to the welfare of society. 
and especially those between persons of a very advanced age. Fecundity 
cannot follow after the woman has ceased to menstruate ; but there is no 
age at which we can declare man to be absolutely sterile. These tacts do 
not, however, oppose the general rule as to the proper age for marriage, 
though a man or woman at a very advanced age cannot fulfil the real end 



36 PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 

of this union, the procreation and physical education of the species. Thus 
when two aged persons, deprived of the faculties necessary for generation, 
marry for the purpose of affording mutual cares in old age, and sweeten- 
ing the last years of life, there is no inconvenience to society, except that 
of favoring celibacy, and deferring conjugal union to a period when it is 
useless to population. 

But when the woman is not beyond the term of fecundity, the conse- 
quences of late marriages are often very serious. She may be barren, 
which is frequently the case, or she may become pregnant at a period of 
life when the rigidity of her fibres may not readily yield to the efforts of 
parturition. Such is often the condition of women between the age of 
thirty-five and forty : they suffer severely during a first labor, their lives 
are endangered, and often destroyed. If they become mothers, their 
offspring is often extremely debilitated, or when the parent is still more 
advanced in age, her infant is often destroyed at the portal of life, or, if 
born, it inherits the languor of its progenitors, it becomes an orphan 
before it is reared, it remains a charge to the public, if there is not a prop- 
erty left to render it independent. 

PHYSICAL DEBILITY OF INFANTS. 

When marriages are contracted between persons of a disproportionate 
age, they are usually followed by great immorality. The power of fecundity 
ceases with one party, while it is continued with the other. These unions? 
therefore, give fewer infants at one time than at another. It is also a 
matter of observation, that in many instances young women bear no 
children when united to old men, though they often become mothers on 
future marriages. Another evil consequence of this class of late and ill- 
sorted marriages is the physical debility of infants ; for the youth of the 
mother is counterbalanced by the languor of the father. 

Conjugal union between a young man and an aged woman causes bad 
effects upon the social order, for it is a kind of sanction for concubinage. 
Man can engender to an old age, but woman is sterile after the cessation 
of the menstrual function. These marriages generally take place on 
account of pecuniary, or other worldly considerations ; they lead the 
husband to debauchery, and the wife to all the excesses of jealousy. They 
are, therefore, injurious to society, and to the increase of the population. 

The laws of ancient nations on late marriages merit notice. In Sparta, 
when a woman brought a fortune to an aged and impotent man, he was 



PHYSICAL LAWS OF MARRIAGE. 37 

compelled to permit her to choose an adjunct to his family. According 
to the Roman law in the reign of Augustus, men who were more advanced 
in life than sixty years, and women than fifty, were not allowed to form 
matrimonial unions. Numerous other examples might be given of laws 
against late marriages. 

Conjugal unions should be entered into with the natural liberty of 
choice. Young persons form attachments which neither parental author- 
ity nor any other consideration can prevent or destroy. But as a general 
rule, the consent of parents ought to be obtained ; and it never should be 
withheld when there is mutual love and affection, and an adequate sup- 
port for the parties and their offspring. Parents often refuse consent on 
the score of interest, ambition, rank, family connection and lucre, and 
compel their offspring to marry against their own inclinations. 

TRANSMISSION OP DISEASE. 

It has been long remarked that old men generally beget infirm, deli- 
cate infants, as well as those persons who are affected with syphilis, 
scrofula, gout, phthisis, etc. These, and many other diseases, are trans- 
mitted to the offspring. Every one knows that children generally resemble 
their parents in features, limbs, and dispositions, so that the moral and 
physical condition of parents are also transmitted to their offspring ; al- 
though in some cases family resemblances are not always the most striking. 

" As parents would sin grievously who should not leave marriage to 
their children's free choice and deliberation, as it is their own personal 
engagement, so children sin morally against the respect and obedience 
which they owe to parents, if they marry against their consent, or without 
their advice, unless the parents' opposition be notoriously unjust." 

There never should be a very great difference in the ages of those 
who are about to form conjugal unions. The authority of parents, 
guardians, and the conductors of schools, should be exerted over those 
under their care, more especially when youth have little acquaintance 
with the world. Inconsiderate and rash unions are often effected while 
young ladies are in scholastic establishments. 

They should discourage visits, private interviews, and all familiarities. 
unless an honorable intention of marriage is declared in the presence of 
a competent witness, for otherwise such a line of conduct is contrary to the 
rules of decency, good manners, and religion, and gives scandal to others. 





Happy and Unhappy 
MARRIAGES. 



CHAPTER III. 




Vi f 3! 



F all temporal evils, an unhappy 
marriage is the greatest. It is 
the source of confusion, misery, 
and vice, of a bad education of 
children, of bad citizens, and of a violation 
of every duty. No one, therefore, ought 
to engage in this contract without the most mature deliberation and a 
virtuous intention. 

One marries for love or sensual gratification, which he imagines will 
be perpetual ; but this passion is soon subdued or extinguished if founded 
on beauty or other fading qualities. Another embraces this state for 
fortune, splendor, title, and so on ; and he too, will, in general, be dis- 
appointed. Most persons expect happiness, pleasure, and wealth ; but 
disappointment is the commonest result. Marriage, unless based on 
religion, virtue, and nature, is seldom happy. 

Unsuitable marriages among persons of different ranks cause dissen- 
sions among families, and are generally unfortunate. Persons usually 
prefer individuals of their own age, disposition, rank, and fortune ; though, 
from instinctive feeling and worldly motives, there are exceptions. Noth- 
ing is more dangerous than great contrasts, — than, to use the words of 
the poet, " the union of January and May." 

Again, a masculine woman disgusts a man who compares her to him- 
self. In like manner, an effeminate man, in place of being preferred by 
women, is despised. The best mode of establishing ardent love between 
the sexes is, that the woman should be feminine and the man masculine. 
If all conjugal unions were assorted after the dictates of nature, or the 
secret instinct of sympathy, nothing could, without doubt, be more delight- 
ful and lasting than the bonds of hymen. By these well-assorted, natural 
proportions, both sexes become certainly better and more perfect ; the 
38 



HAPPY AND UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 39 

mutual abandonment of one to the other forms one being in two bodies ; 
it doubles the sentiments and life, cares are lessened by participation, and 
pleasures are rendered more vivid and exquisite. 

A husband or wife who is virtuous, prudent, and well informed, will 
be the greatest comfort, support, and treasure. The chief characteristics 
of a good husband or wife are piety, love, meekness, reasonableness, 
application to duties and a love of home, " sweet home.'' It is not easy 
to find such individuals. A philosopher compared a man going to marry 
to one who was about to put his hand into a sack, in which were ninety- 
nine serpents and one eel ; the moral of which is, that there are ninety- 
nine chances to one against a fortunate selection. 

The first duties of the married state are mutual love and affection. 
This state is the closest alliance and union in hearts, bodies and concerns. 
Mutual fidelity is the second great conjugal duty, which those entering 
into matrimony vow before their Creator. A marriage, without mutual 
love, is the most unfortunate ; for a perpetual cohabitation with one 
whose person and conversation are disagreeable, and who is an object of 
aversion, conjoined with the thought that a divorce only or death can be 
the deliverance, renders such a union much more uneasy than can be 
expressed or described. 

DYSPEPTIC HUSBANDS AND SNAPPY WIVES. 

Every imperfection, capricious temper, vanity, folly, etc., appear in 
the married state. The demeanor towards the world is agreeable and 
obliging ; but, in domestic life, the mask is thrown off, and an individual 
appears such as he or she really is. Hence it is incredible how much a 
wife has to bear from a husband who is capricious, haughty, choleric, 
dyspeptic, and intractable; or what a sensible husband has to endure from 
a silly, unreasonable, and intractable wife. 

It is difficult for married persons to acquire each other's tastes, 
feelings, and opinions. Patience is an indispensable virtue to this state. 
No one is free from imperfections, both of mind and body ; and both hus- 
band and wife will have to bear with, and often to forgive, each other. 
Every prudent individual should endeavor to become well acquainted with 
the disposition of the woman whom he thinks worthy to be his companion 
for life, and the mother of his offspring. He should ascertain her temper 
and peculiarities, and decide whether they are similar or suited to his 
own. 



40 HAPPY AND UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 

A captious, peevish spirit ; a mind full of suspicions, and easy of 
offence ; a temper sour, fretful, passionate, ever on the watch to find fault 
and to express dissatisfaction, which no attentions can satisfy, and no 
efforts please; rude in its language, scornful in its expressions, and 
unreasonable in its requisitions, treating the old with disrespect, and the 
young with hauteur ; — these are blights and deformities of character, for 
which no other qualities can adequately atone or compensate. 

Nor is it only the quality, but the general similarity of temper which 
must be regarded. Where strong affection prevails, a spirit of accommo- 
dation will prevail also. But it is not desirable that the spirit of 
accommodation should be subjected to very frequent, or very rigorous 
experiments. 

Should the wife, unfortunately, be allied to a husband of irreligious 
character, it is incredible how powerfully his heart may be won over to 
the love of Christianity by the gentle and peaceable demeanor of his 
wife ; whose virtuous deportment, suavity of manners, and diligence in 
duty, united with humility and unobtrusiveness, cannot fail to render her 
both respected and beloved. 

CARES OF MARRIED LIFE. 

A fretful temper is its own tormentor, but it is also a tormentor to 
every one around, and to none more than to the husband, or the wife, 
who may be exposed to its influence. No day, no hour is secure. No 
incident is so trifling, but it may be wrought up into a family disturbance. 
If it be commanded " that all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and 
clamor, be put away," surely the injunction has an increased obligation 
on those whose interest as well as duty it is to obey it. 

The cares of married life are undoubtedly many. The husband and 
wife are not solitary individuals. In their welfare are bound up the com- 
fort and well-being of many dearer to them than their own individual 
comfort. In them is centred the hope, and on them rest the confidence, 
the prosperity, and happiness of family and friends. Exposed to the 
daily mortifications, disappointments, and perplexities of the world, it is 
not marvellous if care clouds their brow, or anxiety wounds their hearts, 
and therefore their sorrows are numerous. They have their many 
conflicts with the troubles of this world ; they have their corroding cares, 
sleepless nights, and anxious days ; sickness will invade their dwelling. 

But, it may be asked, is celibacy always " a life of single blessed- 



HAPPY AND UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 41 

ness?" have the unmarried no cares, no sickness, or no wants ? and if 
they can plead no prescriptive right of exemption from the common lot 
of man, upon what bosom can they pillow an aching heart, or into what 
ear whisper their many sorrows ? what friend will sympathize, with 
cordial disinterestedness, in all their varied woes ? 

The marriage union is the most important of any we are capable of 
forming in this life, and it is not our own happiness alone, but that of 
others also, which is affected by our conduct in it. It is a union, not 
merely constituted with a view to the reciprocal benefit of the two indivi- 
duals who contract to form it, but exercising likewise a paramount 
influence on the manners and happiness of society at large. It is, there- 
fore, a matter of the deepest importance that the duties and obligations 
of our domestic and social relations should be accurately defined, and duly 
impressed on the hearts and consciences of mankind. It is on a due 
understanding, and a faithful discharge of these duties, that the happi- 
ness of the parties themselves, and the prosperity and welfare of the 
present and future generations depend. 

PATIENCE UNDER DOMESTIC TROUBLES. 

It is for these reasons that marriage is an indissoluble contract, 
which cannot be broken on account of caprice, interest, or other motives. 
Were it a civil contract only, men would be at liberty to part with their 
wives as they would with their cattle, and encouragement would be given 
to vice, immorality, and domestic disunion. 

When individuals are aware that the situation in which they are 
placed is only terminable by death, they are obliged to bear with patience 
the troubles and vexations of domestic life — and this is in most cases a 
wise ordination. As a civil contract, the parties are at liberty to choose 
and to deliberate as to their future connection ; it leaves to their own 
discretion the time, circumstances, prudence, and propriety of their union. 
But when once that union has taken place, no earthly power possesses 
the right to suspend or to dissolve it, on grounds of mere convenience, 
caprice, or pleasure. There is something unnatural and interior to 
brutality in a parent who deserts his or her offspring. No attachment is 
so strong, no tenderness is so great, as that which is originated and 
cherished by marriage; and when this is violated bv adultery, or elope- 
ment, it never can be revived, and a subsequent union is unhappy, A 
man, indeed, must be a bad judge of human nature, if lie supposes that 



42 HAPPY AND UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 

the wife of his neighbor, whom he seduces, will be more faithful to him 
than to the man she has dishonored. Nevertheless, we daily observe 
persons in the higher ranks forming marriages of this kind, and, in 
general, deserting and rendering miserable the victims of their unhal- 
lowed passion. 

Men may, and do, violate the sanctity of the marriage vow ; ruin 
unsuspecting girls, whom they have first deceived by promises, which 
they are neither able nor willing to fulfil ; destroy the comfort, the respec- 
tability, the welfare, and the happiness, of innocent families, by the seduc- 
tion of the female parent ; and yet these very men pass in society as 
respectable persons ; are associated, by common consent, with our virtu- 
ous daughters, and modest matrons, and find a ready admittance into 
good society. Can it be a matter of surprise that such evils as we have 
glanced at should disgrace and degrade, injure and afflict society, so long 
as that society upholds and sanctions the vile adulterer and purse-proud 

profligate ? 

CRIMINALITY OF MEN. 

As Christian moralists, we must denounce that perversion of feeling 
which would apologize, extenuate or soften down the criminality of men, 
whilst its whole weight of severity falls on the weaker sex. In our view, 
the duty of both is equally plain, and equally binding : and be the offend- 
ers of what sex they may, they equally sin against conscience, the obli- 
gations of their own vows, and the conditions of their own happiness. A 
man of virtue will be not only virtuous himself, but the friend of virtue 
also. He will honor his wife, and show his regard for decency and 
morals by refusing his friendship and acquaintance to those who bring 
contempt on virtuous love, and disgrace marriage by their easy virtue. 

Nor can we censure too severely that levity, inconstancy, and duplic- 
ity with which men act in the violation of the most solemn engagements, 
when, having won the heart and the affections of a deserving and ami- 
able female, and disregarding all their vows and protestations, they lead a 
wealthier, though often a less deserving, bride to the altar. Honor, feel- 
ing and religion alike proclaim the infamy of the act, and the heartless- 
ness of the wretch who can thus traffic in the most sacred engagements, 
with all the coolness of mercenary consideration. 

If the distinctions of rank, or the adventitious circumstances of for- 
tune could shut out the oppressive cares of life— if the pride and pomp 
of worldly distinction could lull the pains of disease — if the splendor of 



HAPPY AND UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 



13 



high life could shed one gleam of hope over a dying pillow, or dispel the 
gloom which broods over " the house appointed for all living ; " if, in fact, 
human calamity and suffering could be averted by the sacrifice of feeling, 
affection and honor at the shrine of- human vanity and human greatness, 
then, indeed, but not otherwise, would we extend forgiveness to the guilty 
trafficker. 

Less criminal, because less selfish and mercenary, though equally 
foolish, is the importance attached by many to personal charms. Sick- 
ness, we know, will dim the lustre of the brightest eye, and wither the 
loveliest flower. The hue of health and the bloom of youthful vigor 




will alike fade before the noxious breath of sickness and disease. The 
verdure of spring and the gaiety of summer must be succeeded by less 
pleasing seasons ; but each season, to a pious and well-regulated mind, 
offers its appropriate charms. If the flowers of spring and the fruits of 
summer cannot continue in unfading beauty and richness, so neither can 
the graces of beauty and the loveliness of youth. 

But it may be asked, are we then to woo poverty, and to wed deform- 
ity ? By no means. We do not disparage rank, and wealth, and beauty, 
and outward grace ; we allow them to be valuable, and even desirable 
blessings ; but we pronounce them to be, of themselves, unconnected 
with those gifts and graces which no adversity can destroy nor lapse of 
time corrupt, most unsatisfactory blessings and miserable comforters. 
We are not such stoics as to exclude all reference to personal appeal ance, 



44 HAPPY AND UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 

or pecuniary circumstances ; we give them their full weight in our decis- 
ion ; and that weight is by no means trifling — but, after all, we consider 
these things as of very inferior and secondary moment. 

Were we to live always, or even generally, in public ; were the ball- 
room our residence, and the scene of our daily duties ; were we to be 
happy, only in proportion as we secured public applause and admiration, 
then, indeed, we might be justified in our own conscience, and in the 
opinion of the world, for expending all our care and concern on the daz- 
zling pomps and vanities of life, and for making them the chief objects 
of our solicitude in our matrimonial alliances. But let us seriously 
inquire, how far does truth justify such a supposition ? Do not the sober 
and important duties which attach to us as husbands, wives and parents, 
require that we should renounce, to a very considerable extent, the giddy 
pleasures and the tumultuous joys of public life? 

As rational beings, as heads of families, as men pledged to the per- 
formance of important and solemn duties, Home ought to be the centre 
to which our thoughts, our affections and our desires should ever turn. 
Home is the seat of man's truest pleasure, as it is the sphere of his most 
important duties. The qualities which shed their kindliest influence over 
the domestic circle, 

Where all the tumult of a giddy world, 
Tost by ungenerous passions sinks away, 

are those alone which should attract the esteem and conciliate the regard, 
and secure the affection of a rational and sober-minded man. 

There are far more important requisites for marriage than accom- 
plishments, and these are principles and habits. Without attention to 
these, every prospect of happiness will be infallibly blighted. 

An amiable temper, sound judgment, good sense, a well-informed 
mind, correct taste, religious principles, united with the higher accom- 
plishments of a well-educated mind, and blended with mildness of manner 
and gentleness of heart, will be found the substantial qualities which 
cannot fail to win the affection and secure the heart. These constitute 
the essential qualities 

Of fellowship, fit to participate 
All rational delight. 

Whilst, however, we condemn, with a. just and severe reprobation, 
the folly and guilt of those who sacrifice honor and the best affections of 



HAPPY AND UNHAPPY MARRIAGES. 45 

the Human heart on the altar of Mammon, we must not be supposed to 
overlook or to undervalue the dictates of prudence. Love marriages, as 
they are called, usually terminate in bitter disappointment ; the claims of a 
young and increasing family will eventually force themselves on the 
attention of the parents, and, it is to be feared that the vulgar considera- 
tions of discharging bills and meeting family expenses will prove a fruit- 
ful source of those bickerings and disagreements which too plainly show 
the incautious folly and heedless imprudence with which their union was 
formed. Love cannot clothe, educate or maintain a family, nor yet satisfy 
the importunity of a distressed or impatient creditor. We would temper 
the ardor of passion by the sobriety of reason, and bring the affections 
of the heart under the control of prudence and discretion. 

It is evident from the preceding observations, that judicious and 
virtuous parents are bound to interpose their authority when there is 
danger of improvident alliances, and ought to point out the impropriety 
and inexpediency of marriage. But it is never justifiable that parents 
should seek to ally their children with those for whom they have no affec- 
tion, or contemplate only with disgust and repugnance. Paternal author- 
ity cannot reasonably compel alliances against which inclination protests ; 
though there are too many forced and unhappy marriages arising from 
this cause. 

The happiness resulting from a well-formed marriage depends on 
mental excellence of the parties. This can only be known by long 
acquaintance. Love at first sight and ball-room and street matches are 
generally the sources of endless misery ; they are formed without consid- 
eration, and originate in a transient excitement of feeling. True love 
is founded on esteem, and esteem is the result of intimate acquaintance 
and confidential intercourse. This is the origin of pure and virtuous 
love. Marriages based upon this are the only happy ones. 





THE 



PERFECT 

Female Form 




CHAPTER IV. 



T 



blood. 



HERE are several conditions 
necessary to the highest and 
most endnring health. One 
of these is the purity of the 
The lungs are designed to 
aid in maintaining the purity of this fluid, by relieving it of the 
noxious materials it has acquired in the round of its circulation, and 
by furnishing fresh supplies of oxygen to repair the tissues of the 
organs, ever wasting under the processes of vital action. 

The walls of the chest are so contrived as to give admission of air to 
the lungs by elevation of the ribs and the depression of the diaphragm. 
It is necessary that this bellows movement of the chest, by which the 
lungs are supplied with air, should be free and unrestrained ; for the ribs 
are so connected together, that whatever arrests the motion of one or two 
of the long ribs on both sides of the chest affects the motion of the 
whole ; and it would be as philosophical to tie the handles of a bellows 
together in order to have it work well upon a fire, as to apply a belt or 
any other article of dress so firmly about the chest as to arrest the motion 
of the ribs in respiration. 

Were it not for the diaphragm, which has a motion of its own, life 
would be sustained but a few minutes under an entire arrest of the motion 
of the ribs. When the lower part of the chest is in a state of compres- 
sion, the diaphragm, acting from a smaller circumference from its fixed 
margin, moves less efficiently, and its embarrassment is still further 
increased when the walls of the abdomen are so compressed upon the 
viscera, the stomach, spleen, liver, intestines, etc., as to obstruct the 
rising and falling movement belonging to a natural respiration. 

The lungs of a well-developed adult occupy the space of a hundred 
and fifty to three hundred cubic inches. They consist largely of air cells, 
so minute that some anatomists have stated their number as high as six 
46 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



47 




SKELETON OF THE CHEST. 



hundred millions in both lungs. Lieberkuhn has estimated the amount 
of surface on which the blood is exposed to the action of the air in them, 
to be not less than fourteen hundred square feet. 

Whatever mechanical contrivance is so applied to the chest as to 
shut out from the lungs a part of the air they 
are capable of receiving, causes a degenera- 
tion of the blood, increases the liability to 
disease, and becomes the ground-work of 
premature decay and death. Dr. Herbst, by 
actual experiment made on young men who 
wore the Russian belt or corset, ascertained 
that when belted they inhaled, at their deepest 
inspiration, from one-fourth to one-third less 
air than when the belt was removed, and the 
chest left free from constraint. 

It is obvious that the lungs of a child, 
although healthy, are not large enough to 
aerate or purify the blood of an adult. A 
certain proportion, between the capacity of 
the lungs and the size of the other organs, is necessary to their healthy 
activity and power of endurance. If, in childhood, or during the period 
of the growth of the body, the chest is kept in a state of compression, so 

as to prevent the natural and full deve- 
lopment of the lungs, the healthy propor- 
tion between them and the other organs 
is violated, and the injury can never be 
fully repaired. When disease attacks 
one lung, and permanently shuts up one 
half or the whole of its air cells, there is 
not left the same vigor of health, or 
power of resistance to the causes of dis- 
ease, which nature intended. 

I have seen this verified in the case 
of a young lady, Miss M. At the age erf 
chest coMriiEssED by wearing corsets about seventeen she had an inflammation 
of the right side of the chest, which terminated in complete hepatization 
or consolidation of the right lung. The sound on percussion was dull or 
flat. The ribs on the right side were shut down closely upon each other, 




48 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



and had not the slightest appreciable motion in respiration. In this 
condition, with only one lnng to act upon the blood, she lived, in delicate 
and fluctuating health, for five years, when, on a cold day in winter, she 
rode out a few miles and took cold, which was followed by inflammation 
of the left lung, and a rapid consumption, which carried her off in a few 
weeks. Had both lungs been sound, she might very probably have so far 
resisted the cold as to have experienced nothing worse from it than a 
slight indisposition. 

Among the lower animals those that are best fitted for activity, 
strength, and prolonged muscular exertion possess large lungs, as the 
race-horse and the greyhound. Dealers in horses always look out for an 
animal with a large chest, or " good wind." Would it be well to apply 

a corset to these animals 
for the chase ? Do they 
not need it as much as 
women and children ? 

The subject of tight 
lacing has been for many 
years the piece de resist- 
ance of all who have dealt 
with the hygienic aspects 
of dress. The popular 
lecturer, the popular 
writer, and the popular 
artist, have all expended 
considerable pains and energy upon the subject. It has been attacked 
with the most violent abuse, and condemned with the bitterest invective, 
and there are few ills to which flesh is heir that have not been ascribed 
by some one or another to this fashionable practice. 

In dealing with the matter, there would appear to be a tendency to 
reckless exaggeration and sweeping assertion, and a disposition to treat 
the subject with explosive and hysterical vigor. The practice of tight 
lacing is no doubt bad in more ways than one, but the disappearance of 
the fashion is not likely to be brought about by the ill-considered abuse 
and imperfectly substantiated statements. 

Few, for example, could treat with other than an incredulous smile 
the assertion of an American physician that tight lacing " has done more 
within the last century than war, pestilence, and famine towards the 





NATURAL FORM UNLACED. 



DEFORMED BY LACING. 







■' 








m ' 






: % 


. 






: 






1 • 

; • - 




Kfi'SR '' •"!>» 










i» 


: ''''■'■:■ -r ■■''. ■'. ■■^'•r.-M 






HP* ^TBK^^ir 






V " 





"ETERNAL SMILES HKK LOVELINESS BETRAY 
AS WOODLAND STREAMS KIN DIMPLING ALL THE WAY 




IT IS XOT WHILE BEAUTY AXD YOUTH ARE THIXE OWX, 
AXD THY CHEEKS UXPROFAXED BY A TEAR, 

THAT THE FERVOR AXD FAITH OF THY SOUL MAY BE KNOWN, 
TO WHICH TIME WILL BUT MAKE THEE MORE DEAR." 




COPYRIGHT IdOO BY A. DUPOMT 



A MODERN VENUS. 



m 









"SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY LIKE THE NIGHT 

OF CLOUDLESS CLIMES AND STARRY SKIES, 
AND ALL THAT'S BEST *OF DARK AND BRIGHT 
MEETS IN HER ASPECT AND HER EYES." 




COPYRIGHT, l'.HM, BY T1IK TOXXKI.E OO. 

ART OF DRESSING THE HANDS. 
woman's dress requires THAT special attention be given to the 

COVERING OP THE HANDS, WHICH SHOULD BE ADAPTED TO I HI 

SEASON, AND SHOULD COMPRISE ALL THE ADORNMENTS 

INVENTED FOR THIS PART OV FEMALE ATTIRE. 





ib * - * ^■^^^H 


' ■ *'"' - 


^ V ^l'^" W' 






' '' ' s. 





FINELY DEVELOPED CHEST AND ARMS. 




B ion NRLE i 



MASSAGE OF THE NECK AND CHEST. 

MASSAGE DEVELOPS AND BEAUTIFIES EVERY PART OV THE BODY 
TO WHICH IT IS APPLIED. 




COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THE TONNELE CO. 

THE MORNING TOILETTE. 

FRICTION WITH A TOWEL PROMOTES THE HEALTH OF THE SKIN, IMPARTS A 

GLOW TO THE CHEEKS, AIDS THE ACTION OF THE LUNGS AND HEART, 

AND IS AN INDISPENSABLE ADJUNCT TO THOSE EXERCISES WHICH 

GIVE TONE AND STRENGTH TO THE WHOLE SYSTEM. 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 40 

physical deterioration of civilized man." And coming more to facts, 
one can only regard as remarkable the experience of a lady doctor who, 
at a post-mortem examination of some women with "the broad peasant 
waist," found that " in one case the liver had been completely cut in two, 
and was only held together by a calloused bit of tissue." This condition 
might have existed in the case referred to, but there would be few who 
would be bold enough to ascribe it to faults in dress in a female with 
" the broad peasant waist." I shall endeavor, therefore, in the following 
remarks to keep as closely as possible to actual facts, and to avoid conclu- 
sions that may be open to the charge of being strained and biassed. 

Although the corset is, comparatively speaking, a modern production, 
yet the practice of constricting the waist would appear to be of some 
antiquity. Contemporary with the origin of the fashion there no doubt 
came solemn warnings as to its evils, and, according to Cerviotti, Hippo- 
crates — who died B. c. 361 — vigorously reproached the ladies of Cos for 
too tightly compressing their ribs, and thus interfering with their 
breathing powers. 

TIGHT LACING UNREASONABLE. 

In the first place, as a matter of common sense, it must be owned 
that tight lacing cannot occupy a very high position. Considering the 
subject quite apart from any aesthetic grounds, and quite apart from any 
hygienic influences, the compression of the ribs and abdominal walls in a 
young and perfectly developed woman must appear strangely unreason- 
ble. I do not open up the question as to how far women whose figures 
are ill-formed or unsightly are justified in tight lacing to produce a more 
normal appearance, but take rather the simple fact of a female in robust 
health and of perfect outline who thinks fit for certain reasons to deform 
the body. In the strictest sense of the term, the body of a normal woman 
who is tight laced must be regarded as deformed. Through most ages and 
among most peoples some deformity of the bod}^ has been at one time or 
another fashionable. Professor Flower, in his admirable little book on 
" Fashion in Deformity," has dealt with many of these. 

Certain Indians, for example, think fit to flatten the head by means 
of pressure applied to the growing skull. The Chinese lady cramps her 
foot until it is neither fit to look at nor to walk upon. Among- other 
nations it is fashionable to wear a bone thrust through the nose, or to 
deform the lower lip by inserting a disc of stone or metal beneath the 
4 



50 



THE PERFECT FEMAEE FORM. 



THE NATURAL FEMALE FORM 



skin. The civilized American of the present day prefers to compress her 
ribs, and to produce a certain modification in the outline of the body. As 
evidences of intelligence and of a reasoning faculty, these practices must 
all occupy about the same low level, and it is remarkable that in highly 
civilized nations — prone to recognize the absurdities of other less favored 
peoples — the production of bodily deformities should still be an essential 
item in fashion. 

As a matter of beauty, the claims of the constricted waist have been 
somewhat severely criticised and opposed. Many 
of those who acknowledge that tight lacing may 
possibly be injurious to the health, and own that 
the practice in the abstract is not sensible, would 
yet contend for its maintenance, on the grounds 
that the narrow waist adds to the beauty of the 
outline, and is the subject of much admiration. A 
desire to be attractive and a love for admiration are 
potent influences on the female mind ; and but a 
scanty knowledge of human nature would assure 
us that, with many, those influences will outweigh 
distant fears of impaired health. 

In discussing this matter, therefore, it is im- 
possible to avoid some consideration of the aesthetic 
claims of the narrowed waist. In an anatomical 
sense, the most perfect outline of the female 
figure would be represented by that of a nude, 
young, normally developed woman. Such a figure 
would, it is well known, present a waist some 26 
or 27 inches in circumference; that would be regarded by many with 
absolute horror. Now, in all the most excellent attempts that art has 
made to give expression to female loveliness, this outline of the healthy 
and perfectly constructed woman has always been reverently preserved. 
It is the outline that has been made famous by the grandest statuary of 
ancient and modern times, and that has been the glory of the painter since 
the earliest days of art. Such an outline is well represented by the 
famous Venus de Medici. Side by side with the drawing of this marble 
is a representation of a narrow waist — by no means extreme — which, to 
ensure freedom from exaggeration, has been taken from a photograph. 
There are some who would say that the Venus is coarse and 




POWERS'S "GREEK SLAVE. 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



unwieldly in outline, and maintain that the more modern figure gives a 
pleasant impression of trimness, and presents altogether a more agreeable 
configuration. Without discussing the matter at length, it can only be 
pointed out that the figure of Venus is the figure of anatomical perfection, 
of complete devel- 
opment, and of per- 
fect health. If the 
outline be coarse 
and repulsive, then 
is nature coarse, 
and the expression 
of simple bodily 
vigor a thing to 
offend the eye. In 
the Venus there 
is a gentle sweep 
from the shoulder 
to the hip, all parts 
are in proportion, 
the actual outline 
of the body pre- 
cisely according 
with the principles 
of beauty. In the 
modern figure 
there is an abrupt — 
constriction of the 
waist ; the should- 
ers and hips appear the venus de medici, 
ponderous by com- showing the natural 

,1 , i • OUTLINE OF THE BODY. 

panson, the outline 

is pronounced and lacking in simple ease, and, so far as the anatomical 

eye can view it, the proportions of the body are lost. 

One point remains to be noticed ; there are some who, while they 
acknowledge the beauty of the outline of the nude figure, maintain that 
that outline is not adapted to the body when draped with clothing. They 
assert that the perfectly developed nude figure cannot be accepted as the 
standard upon which to judge the fittest outline o{ the clothed figure. 




THE OUTLINE OF THE BODY PRODUCES 
BY TIGHT LAC I NT.. 



52 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



They assert that the dress conceals the outline of the lower extremities, 
and substitutes an outline that is perfectly different, and that is not 
consistent with the configuration of the normal waist. It is insisted, more- 
over, that inasmuch as in the female the natural outline of the extremities 

cannot be decently represented in a 
clothed figure, the entire proportions 
of the body are altered, and so altered 
as to render a waist of natural 
dimensions no longer desirable. 

Thus is opened up the question as 
to how far any form of garment 
that reproduces the configuration of 
the nude figure is to be admired. 
Those who advocate the views just 
detailed maintain that some constric- 
tion of the waist is necessary to the 
female figure when dressed, in order 
to restore proportions that have been 
lost by the concealment of the lower 
limbs, and support their argument by 
mathematical data. I imagine that 
the decision of such a matter must 
be a question purely of individual 
taste and judgment, and to such a 
censorship the subject must be left at 
present. For my own part I hold the 
belief that that dress is the most 
becoming to woman which the most 
accurately reproduces the exquisite 
outline of the nude figure, provided that such a costume offends in no 
way the strictest dictates of modesty. 

This lateral curvature of the spine is very seldom met with in boys. 
They suffer no constraint from dress, and find means, even in cities, of 
taking free exercise in the open air. At a late period of the career of 
that eminent surgeon, Dr. P. S. Physick, of Philadelphia, I had the 
opportunity of asking him whether he had often seen cases of lateral 
curvature of the spine in boys. After a short pause he replied, " I do 
not remember to have seen above one case in a boy." " You have seen 




CERES. 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



53 



it, sir, in girls ? " " Yes," said he, promptly and emphatically, u in thou- 
sands." The female boarding-schools, as they were conducted some years 
ago, were a fruitful source of this complaint. The girls were compelled 
to occupy seats without a back or anything to lean against ; were required 
to sit prim for several hours, in order to 
keep the body erect. The effect of this 
was to tire out the muscles in their 
unremitted exertions, and allow the spine 
to bend under the weight it had to sustain. 

Dr. Forbes, an eminent London 
physician, mentions having found in a 
boarding-school upwards of forty young 
misses, a large proportion of them having 
their spines affected in this way. Within 
the last few years some improvements, as 
to seats and exercise, have found their 
way into these institutions, in our coun- 
try. 

In the early stage of this affection, 
when the curvature is but slight, and the 
patient, by a strong muscular effort to 
resist downward pressure made upon the 
top of the head, can, for a few moments, 
so erect the spine as to bring the spinous 
processes into a straight vertical line, the 
case is remediable ; and even when the 
affection is in a form somewhat more 
grave its progress may often be arrested. 

In the treatment of lateral curvature 
of the spine an entirely loose dress should 
be prescribed, an early morning sponge 
bath in tepid or cold water, followed by free dry friction, especially to the 
back and limbs, daily and persevering exercise in the open air, and a 
plain, unstimulating but substantial diet. In the early stage ot the 
complaint, carrying a weight on the head, as suggested by Mr. Wilson, 
in order to compel the muscles to a temporary extra effort, may be 
required as an auxiliary to the end in view. A convenient form for the 
weight is a bag of sand, which can easily be graduated to the strength 




FLORA. 



54 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



of the spinal muscles to sustain it, under a strong voluntary exertion 
for ten minutes or more, until a slight sense of fatigue is felt. This 
may be repeated several times in a day. 

Among the Greeks and Romans the cestus or girdle was employed 
to gather the flowing robe around the waist, leaving the form and propor- 
tions of the body free and natural. When and where the tight waist or 
corset first appeared, it is not easy, nor is it important, to determine, but 
it has existed for several centuries, and has been almost, if not quite, 

exclusively found among nations enlightened, 
and nominally Christian. In what costume 
more becoming or attractive has woman ever 
appeared than in the impersonation of beauty 
and elegance in Hebe, Ceres, and Flora ? 

There is but one word that can be offered 
in favor of the custom of tight dressing, and 
that word is Fashion. Reason and common 
sense are against it ; anatomy, physiology, the 
love of health and life, are against it; good 
taste, humanity, and religion are against it. 
Who could have been the prime instigator of a 
fashion so hostile to health and life ? 

A physician is not unfrequently consulted 
in the case of a female patient who complains 
of a pain in the side, headache, sometimes 
dizziness, a dry cough, capricious appetite, with 
derangement of function in the alimentary 
canal. Among other suggestions, the doctor 
recommends a perfectly loose dress. The lady 
assures him that she does not dress tight ; she could never bear any- 
thing tight about her in her life. If she be young, and her mother is 
present, this statement is confirmed in a matronly decision, given with 
unappealable emphasis, again and again repeated. The doctor, if not 
convinced nor disposed to relinquish his position, asks for a piece of 
tape or narrow ribbon, passes it round the lower third of the chest of the 
patient, comparing its circumference under a prolonged expiration with 
that of the fullest inspiration, and showing a difference, if any at all, of 
from a quarter to half an inch.* 

This experiment, with the proper explanations, puts a period to the 




HEBE. 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



55 



discussion, if it fails to enforce observance of the advice. No lady 

considers herself as dressing tight if she knows any one who dresses 

tighter. A person accustomed to a tight dress feels a 

want of support without it. " I feel as though I should 

fall to pieces without my stays ; and then how I should 

look with nothing snug and genteel about me ! " To 

the question sometimes put, What is tight dressing ? 

the answer is, any article of dress that shuts the blood 

from a single vessel, or the air from a single air-cell, is 

too tight for the most perfect health. 

One erroneous impression as to the anatomy of the 
female body may be conveniently noted in this place. 
It has been many times declared that the amount of 
" waist '' varies in different women, and that some are 
naturally provided with a tapering waist. In answer 
to those who are impressed with this belief, it may be 
said that the amount of constriction that constitutes 
the waist does not vary in bodies of like size and of 
like development. Like all other anatomical propor- 
tions, the proportions of the waist are constant, other 
things being equal. If, however, the hips are unduly 
prominent, or unduly dwarfed, the waist may appear 
in the one case more distinct and in the other less 
obvious. Obesity may obliterate the waist, and ema- 
ciation make it more pronounced. 

Young children and young girls have a less de- 
finite waist, owing to the fact that their hip bones are 
relatively as well as actually smaller than are the 
same parts in the fully developed. No woman, how- 
ever, enters this world with the " wasp-like waist' ' 
ready made, and under no circumstances " can the 
fashionable constriction be developed without artificial 
means. This assertion is not affected by the fact that 
the narrowing of the trunk is, in some individuals, 
more easily produced than others. 

The natural waist, such as it is, consists of a narrowing- ot the trunk 
in the interval between the last of the ribs and the top ot the hip bone. 
A reference to the normal skeleton will show that this interval is by no 



56 THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 

means extensive, and that it affords the only opportunity for the develop- 
ment of a natural constriction of the soft parts. Let all those, therefore, 
who practice tight lacing (if even to a slight extent) distinctly understand 
that the narrowing of the waist is effected mainly at the expense of the 
internal organs. The smaller the waist you wish to obtain, the more 
must you compress those organs. It is no question merely of squeezing 
in skin, and muscle, and bone — it is a question of squeezing in lungs, and 
stomach, and liver. An examination of the body after death of those 
who have practised severe tight lacing shows forcibly the effects of the 
practice. The liver is found pushed down, and more or less dislodged 
from its proper place. Moreover, it will appear indented by the ribs, and 
these indentations mean that the ribs have been so forcibly driven into 
the liver as to leave permanent indications of that fact. In like manner 
the stomach will be dragged out of position and is often structurally 
altered. The diaphragm is pushed up, the lung space is encroached upon, 
and the heart often suffers no inconsiderable displacement. 

EVILS OF TIGHT LACING. 

How does all this affect the health ? The liver is an organ whose 
importance in the general economy cannot be well exaggerated. Through 
it passes the blood concerned in digestion, and in addition to this the 
organ itself takes an important and essential part in the act of digestion. 
The result of the pressure from tight lacing is that the circulation 
through the liver may become impeded, and the function of the gland 
disturbed. As a result of this (aided by changes elsewhere), various 
forms of dyspepsia become common, and following upon them may come 
some part of that general malnutrition often noticed in the miniature- 
waisted. It has been pointed out that the malady known as gall stones 
is more common in women than in men, and it has been suggested, with 
some reason, that this disproportion is due to the peculiarities of female 
dress. Pressure upon the stomach may cause gastralgia, indigestion, 
nausea, vomiting, and other inconveniences. 

A serious and sometimes fatal disease — ulcer of the stomach — has 
been shown to be capable of being produced by the practice of tight 
lacing, and to the same practice may often be assigned many forms of 
colic, and that ailment known to the laity as " spasms." Upon the 
organs peculiar to the female the pressure effects of tight lacing have a 
particularly baneful effect, and there is no question but that the practice 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



57 



has led to serious and incurable affections of those parts. A recent 
author, dealing with these diseases, recognizes improprieties of dress as a 
frequent and vigorous cause of these special ailments, and points out the 
manner in which displacements of the womb can be produced by 
constricted waists. 

The diaphragm is a muscle concerned solely in the act of breathing, 
and its function therefore is of the highest importance. It unfortunately 
happens that the attachment, or base of action of this muscle, is repre- 
sented by the very ribs that help to form the hour-glass waist. The 
result is, that in a tightly laced individual the diaphragm can have but 
little action, and the breathing power becomes thus seriously restricted. 

A simple experiment with the spiro- A PERFECT FEM alb form. 

meter will show that a woman, even if 
she adopts but a slight constriction of the 
waist, has much greater breathing capa- 
city with her stays off than with them 
on. The breathing in tight lacing, how- 
ever, is not only impaired by interfer- 
ence with the diaphragm, but also by the 
constriction of the ribs. In the act of 
respiration the ribs move freely up and 
down, but when the body is gripped by 
a corset, the movement of the lower ribs 
can be scarcely possible. 

In addition to these evils, the lungs 
themselves must be subjected to a more or less serious compression. It 
is easy to surmise how this tampering with important organs will affect 
the general health. Air is essential to life, and it must be breathed freely 
and fully. There are few who have not some idea of the effects of an 
insufficient supply of pure air. The tight-laced individual may be sur- 
rounded with plenty of oxygen, but so compressed are her breathing 
organs that she cannot draw it into her lungs. She is in the position of 
a person starving in the midst of plenty. Any one who has watched a 
wasp-waisted lady after a dance, must have noticed the unsightly and 
exaggerated heaving of the upper part of the chest, which is merely an 
expression of Nature's efforts to obtain a proper supply o{ air. 

Apart from these immediate effects there are certain remote effects. 
Among these may be mentioned the languor, the unfitness for vigorous 




PSYCHE. 



58 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



exertion, the sensation of lassitude of which so many tightly laced ladies 
complain — symptoms dne to no small extent to the persistent and gross 
interference with the natural act of breathing, aided by the malnutrition 
incident upon impaired digestive functions. 

As already stated, undue constriction of the waist may cause some 
displacement of the heart, but it also serves to seriously embarrass the 
general circulation. This is effected mainly by an 
interference with the blood current in the lungs and 
great abdominal viscera, whereby an unnecessary 
strain is thrown upon the heart. The victims of 
miniature waists are often troubled with palpitation, 
and are liable to faint, or at least feel uncomfortable 
after unusual exertion. 

Two or three cases have been recorded in the 
medical journals of death from apoplexy in young 
women who were extravagantly tight-laced. A visible 
disturbance of the blood circulation of the face has 
long been popularly associated with the tapering 
waist, and it is a common taunt to assert of a much- 
constricted woman that her corset is too tight to 
allow her to sit down without her nose becoming red. 
The injurious effect of tight corsets upon the 
muscles of the back is very obvious. The spinal 
column is kept erect by a large number of impor- 
tant muscles that run down the whole length of the 
trunk. It is well known that the more a muscle is 
exercised within reason, the larger and more vigorous 
does it become; the disused muscle, on the other 
hand, becoming wasted, flabby, and greatly impaired 
outline of the human in strength. When close-fitting and rigid corsets are 
used the responsibility of supporting the back falls 
great extent upon the corset ; the function of 
places. the muscles is more or less superseded, and from 

long-continued disuse they become wasted, shrunken, and enfeebled. 
They undergo, indeed, the same changes that the muscles of a man's arm 
would undergo should he think fit to keep the limb fastened to a board 
for any length of time. 

The back of a woman who has long worn stays is emphatically ugly. 




FORM, 

representing the muscles of 

the abdomen, well developed, f n Q 

retaining the organs of the L(J ** 

abdomen in their proper 



THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 



59 



It will be found to have lost its agreeable outline ; the shrinking of the 
muscles will have caused the bones to appear unduly prominent, and the 
general aspect of the part will be flat, inert and expressive of defective 
development. During, the period of growth the muscles require frequent 
and vigorous exercise ; and if young girls, and even young women, 
persistently wear stays, it follows that their muscles suffer unusually ; 
the function of those muscles is absorbed by the 
corset, and the longer these so-called " supports " are 
worn, the more indispensable do they become, and 
the more completely are they relied upon for the 
support of this most important part of the body. 

Muscular weakness in the structures that main- 
tain the erect position of the spine may lead to 
curvature and other deformities of the back, and 
thus it is that the use of rigid corsets in young 
people has been so generally condemned by surgeons 
as a most efficient means for producing spinal 
ailments. 

In the same way the use of corsets tends to 
weaken the abdominal muscles, because they, to a 
certain extent, absorb the function of those muscles, 
and allow them to waste from disuse. Thus some 
undue protuberance of the abdomen is not uncom- 
mon in those who have long worn stays, and this 
additional deformity has necessitated an additional 
evil in the form of certain abdominal belts. 

Not only does tight lacing affect the outline of 
the figure at the waist, but it must produce changes 
also in the configuration of other parts of the body. 
It tends, in the first instance, to make the shoulders 
high and square. This is due to the expansion of 
the upper part of the chest that is compensatory to the !1 
the compression of the lower part. At first the ;^J. U . 
high and square shoulders of tightly-laced women may not be considered 
to be unsightly. The body is certainly made to assume a somewhat 
triangular outline, and the graceful slope of the shoulders is lost. But 
this change in figure is tolerated as seeming to exaggerate the smallness 
of the waist, for the wider the shoulders and the broader the hips the 




OUTLINE OF THE HUMAN 

FORM, 

representing the muscles of 

the abdomen weaker; 
relaxed, with prolapsus Of all 
he organs in the cavity of 



60 THE PERFECT FEMALE FORM. 

more microscopic does the waist appear. As years advance this deformity 
of the upper part of the body usually becomes more pronounced, and is 
unmitigatedly ugly. The high shoulders become round, cumbrous and 
unsightly, while the increased breathing efforts of years will have caused 
an undue prominence of the upper part of the chest, that adds to the 
general shapelessness. Tight-lacing, moreover, can never allow of a 
graceful and easy carriage. The introduction of a rigid stiffness about 
the middle of the body will quite prevent that, and will render most 
of the movements constrained and angular. 

If the power of tight-lacing for causing wasting of muscle be borne 
in mind, it will be understood that of all means that the ingenuity of 
man could devise for preserving the youthfulness of the figure, there is 
perhaps none that will prove more useless, or that will more completely 
defeat its own purpose, than the persistent wearing of an arrangement of 
steel and whalebone. 

A REPROACH UPON NATURE. 

In concluding this part of the matter we might approach the ques- 
tion so often asked : "Are stays a necessity ? " Many women assert that 
they derive great comfort from stays, that they support the body admira- 
bly, and that without them the wearer feels inclined to u drop to pieces." 
All this may be perfectly true. But what significance must we attach to 
the statement that certain women cannot possibly do without stays ? Do 
they mean for one moment to assert that the human body is so ill 
constructed and so badly adapted for its purpose in life that it has to 
depend for its integrity upon the productions of a corset maker ? Such 
an assumption is simply outrageous, the true explanation being that by 
the persistent use of stays the muscles of the back have become so 
enfeebled (from prolonged disuse) that they are no longer able to support 
the spine. 

Those who declare, therefore, that they cannot do without stays adopt 
the argument of the opium-eater, who maintains that he cannot do with- 
out his opium. The long-continued use of the drug has so impaired his 
system that he feels a constant craving for it. And those who cannot 
exist unless braced up by corsets have so enfeebled a part of their system 
that they cannot do without the support upon which they have so long 
depended. 





CHAPTER V. 

THE Pelvis is an important part of 
the skeleton in the study of the 
distinctive organs of woman. It is the bony basin, the 
outer edges of which form the hips, and which is spread out 
to uphold and support all the most important interior 
organs of the body. Behind, it commences at the lowest 
lumbar vertebra, that is, at the small of the back, and con- 
tinues downwards to the end of the spine. 

Laterally, the hip-bones form its prominent parts, the 
sides of the basin sloping downwardly and inwardly, below 
the upper head of the thigh-bones. This would form a 
cone with its base upwards if it were closed in by 
bony structure in front, as it is on its sides and 
back. In front, however, the sides of the pelvis 
are open at the top, and coming down to meet each 
other are joined at the lower extremity by two tri- 
angular arms, forming the pubis. 

Anatomically, all these bony parts are sepa- 
rate, each bearing a distinct name, such as "the 
Sacurn," behind, u Ossa Innominata," at the sides, and " Os Pubis," in 
front. The bones at the bottom of the pelvic basin, on which the body 
rests when in sitting posture, are called " Ischii." 

All the above named bones knit together constitute one firm body, 
called pelvis, or basin. The cavity within this basin is not regular or 
straight, being somewhat bent and constricted in the middle like an 
old-fashioned barbers basin. 

61 



62 THE FEMALE PELVIS. 

This constriction divides the cavity into two sections ; the upper one 
being called by anatomists the " greater," aud the lower cne the " lesser," 
or the " superior " and u inferior, straits." The walls of the abdomen 
close and complete the cavity in front, 

So far, this cavity has been spoken of as a distinct one, but in reality 
it is only a portion of the abdominal cavity, which reaches upward to the 
arch of the diaphragm at the base of the lungs. This great abdominal 
cavity, including that of the pelvis, contains above and on the right, the 
liver ; in the center and at the lower extremity of the breast bone, the 
stomach ; the spleen on the left ; the kidneys behind, or about at the 
small of the back ; the intestines filling up the largest portion of the 
cavity in the center, and the bladder and the rectum lying at the lowest 
end of the funnel-shaped space. 

FALLOPIAN TUBES AND OVARIES. 

In woman, however, the womb occupies a space an inch or two below 
the navel, behind the small intestines, and in front of the rectum. It lies 
about six inches above the entrance of the vagina, with which it connects, 
just as the small end of a pear (which is about the shape of the womb) 
would enter into a tube larger than its neck, but smaller than its body. 
In continuation with the upper end of the womb are the " Fallopian 
tubes " and the " ovaries " (the uses of which will be explained hereafter), 
which extend to the right and to the left, like the spread wings of a bat. 

The u ovaries " lie in the hollow on each side of the abdomen, formed 
by the projection of the hip-bones, about two inches below the crest. All 
these various organs are held in position in the abdominal cavity by a 
membrane called the " Peretonium ;" besides all these there are arteries, 
veins, nerves, lymphatics, etc. 

The pelvis is somewhat different in the two sexes, for very pertinent 
reasons. As a whole, the pelvis in the male is smaller but deeper ; the 
bones are thicker. There are other, minor differences in the construc- 
tion and the diameters, but they would be of little interest or importance 
to the reader. 

The two lower limbs are attached to the sides of the bony circle 
formed by the pelvis, and support, in the erect posture, all the weight of 
the upper part of the body. 

Another important function of the pelvis is to enclose and protect 
the generative and digestive organs. During gestation, it sustains and 



THE FEMALE PELVIS. 



63 



gives a proper direction to the womb; and in labor it affords a safe passage 
to the child. From this description is evident the necessity to women of 
perfection in the construction of the pelvis in giving birth to the child. 

Since the pelvis has important relation to child-bearing, it follows 
that in early life great care should be exercised that proper proportions 
may be secured, and deviations from normal conditions obviated. Its 
cavities and outlets are regarded by the physician with great interest, for 
upon them depends, in a great measure, the safety of the mother at 
delivery. Like all other bony structures, its development is gradual until 
the age of eighteen, and even 
later, when ossification seems 
to have reached its degree of 
perfection. 

During all these years of 
growth, the various bones of 
the pelvis are held together 
by muscular attachments, 
and by cartilaginous articula- 
tions. During the tender 
age of a girl, a fall, or badly 
applied vestments, causing 
pressure on any part of it, 
may disturb the normal posi- 
tion of the respective bones, 
and produce a distorted pel- 
vis. Such an unfortunate occurrence might prove a serious malforma- 
tion, that would impede the natural progress of labor. 

At birth, the pelvis is extremely narrow and elongated, and of such 
inconceivably small dimensions that its cavity cannot contain several of the 
organs afterwards found in it ; from which circumstance the protuberance 
of the abdomen, observed in the foetus and in children at term, in great 
measure results. It is stated by anatomists, however, that its form 
changes by degrees as little girls advance in age ; thus it is that the 
diameter from front to back, which measures two and seven-eighths 
(2 7-8) inches at nine years, will gradually increase until at the eighteenth 
year it will have acquired a length of four inches ; while the transverse 
diameter, which at nine years of age is found to be about three inches, at 
eighteen years is four and one-half (4 1-2) inches. 




MALE PELVIS. 

A. Narrow Arch ; B. Cup-like Cavities to receive the 
bones of the legs. 



64 



THE FEMALE PELVIS. 



It is not enough to bear in mind the general form or construction of 
the pelvis as already given ; its mode of development should also claim 
attention. As the pelvis is not a single bone completed at birth, but, on 
the contrary, a system of bones whose union is accomplished only in years 
after birth, it devolves upon us to know its manner of growth, that it may 
not be exposed to accidents, to distortions, or to deviations. 

We find that at birth and for several years after, the pelvis is divided 
into separate parts, each part being kept in juxtaposition to the others by 
elastic, fibrous ligaments and cartilages. There are no less than six such 
parts thus united, three on each side, having five distinct articulations or 
joints. It is true that these articulations do not allow as much freedom 

of motion as those of the 
elbows, knees, or other bony 
surfaces of the skeleton ; but 
they are nevertheless mov- 
able, sliding one on the other 
and easily bent by com- 
pression, particularly during 
the tender period preceding 
puberty, and more or less, 
also, until the age of eighteen, 
when ossification has firmly 
secured the several parts to- 
gether. 

Mothers acquainted with 
these facts could not fail to 
appreciate our solicitude regarding the normal growth of this part of the 
body of women. The tender care of the mother should therefore com- 
mence immediately after the birth of a girl. At this time it is usual for 
the nurse, for the sake of neatness, to apply a napkin to the child ; but 
this napkin is often a cumbrous affair, badly adjusted. It is generally 
folded in a triangular form, the longest side drawn over the hips around 
the back and pinned in front of the abdomen. 

We have already stated that at this time of life the little pelvis is so 
incompletely developed that the womb of a girl is out of its cavity and the 
protection of its bones. If that napkin is coarse and heavy, clumsily 
applied, or too tight around the abdomen, it may be that undue pressure 
is exerted over the prominence of the abdomen, thus causing the womb to 




FEMALE PELVIS. 

A. Broad Arch; B. Cup-like Cavities to receive the 
bones of the legs. 




BEAUTY OF THE HUMAN FORM DIVINE, 



THE FEMALE PELVIS. 



65 



descend, and induce, even at this early age, a displacement of that organ, 
which in turn may press upon the bladder, disabling the child from hold- 
ing its water for a longer period than an hour. The frequent micturitions 
of infant girls may be due partly to this unsuspected pressure. 

It is known, moreover, that at the tender age of infancy, the bones do 
not contain enough earthy matter to render them hard, and consequently 
they are pliable and easily bent. The broad bones of the pelvis are 
oblique ; hence, constriction around the body may cause them to bend, 
thus changing the direction of growth, so that, instead of growing out- 
wardly, they may be made to 
grow inwardly, restricting the 
development of the cavity to 
its minimum, instead of en- 
couraging its width to the 
maximum. 

In consideration of the 
above, the attendants should 
see that the bands and nap- 
kins applied to infants be so 
loose as to make ^o pressure 
whatever. Allowing a napkin 
to be a necessity for cleanli- 
ness, and even for decency, 
let it be pinned to the undershirt, or to a loose belt held in position by 
suspenders. This freedom, so much recommended for the proper deve- 
lopment of the pelvis, is not to be neglected even later, when girls attain 
the age which ushers them into society that awakens in the mind a 
desire for beauty of form, of manner, and of dress, for then they impro- 
perly lace their waists, carry weight upon their hips, and in various ways 
compress the surface and circumference of the pelvis. 

Deformity of Pelvis. — Fortunate would it be for child-bearing- 
women if they each possessed a pelvis of the standard figure and dimen- 
sions. Such, however, is by no means the case ; and this organ is subject 
to great varieties, as well in form as size. It would, indeed, be difficult to 
select from all the preserved specimens in existence, any two which 
exactly resembles each other — agreeing minutely in shape, din:. 
and weight. Many are found to be much above the ordinary volume and 
numbers, on the other hand greatly below it 




A DEFORMED PELVIS. 



66 



THE FEMALE PELVIS. 



The want of due capacity sometimes originates in natural formation ; 
thus, a woman of short stature, although of tolerable symmetry, might be 
expected to possess a diminutive pelvis ; but this is far from being 
universal, or even a general remark. Again, the re-union of the bones 
after fractures will commonly occasion both distortions and contraction of 
space ; but when there exists a deficiency of room to any great extent the 
irregularity is mostly dependent on disease of the bones themselves. 

If we look at the head of the child, and the cavity through which it 
has to traverse, in a mechanical point of view (which we must do before 
we can arrive at a correct knowledge of the process of parturition, even in 
the simplest and most easy state), we shall immediately perceive that 
size, as regards the head and the pelvis, is entirely a relative term, and 
that a pelvis preternaturally small, or a head unusually large, will each 
in practice occasion difficulty in the same degree as they deviate from the 
standard dimensions ; so that it matters little whether the disproportion 
be the consequence of diseased action or any other cause ; provided it 
exists, to a certain extent, it must necessarily be productive of a protracted 
struggle. 

There are two diseases particularly through which the pelvis suffers 
considerable deterioration to size — rickets, a disorder of childhood, and 
softening of the bones in one of adult age. In both these affections there 
is a want of due solidity in the osseous system throughout the whole 
body. The animal matter entering into the composition of the skeleton 
being in great excess, and the earthy matter in proportionate deficiency, 
the bones yield like softened wax ; the regularity and beauty of the pelvic 
form, as well as of other bony cavities, is destroyed, and miserable speci 
mens of distortion are the result. 




T 




FEMALE ORGANS 
of GENERATIO 




CHAPTER VI. 

HE generative or reproductive organs of the 
human female are usually divided into the inter- 
nal and external. Those regarded as internal are 
concealed from view and protected within the 
body. Those that can be readily perceived are 
termed external. The entrance of the vagina may 
be stated as the line of demarcation of the two 
divisions. 

The external organs of generation consist of 
the Mons Veneris, External and Internal Labia, 
Clitoris, Meatus, Urinarius and Hymen. 

Mons Veneris. — This is the prominence situ- 
ated over the anterior bones of the pelvis, consisting 
of the integuments or skin (fatty or adipose tissue), 
and covered with hair at puberty. 

External Labia. — The labia majora (large 
lips) are sometimes called the external lips of the 
vagina, and close the orifice of that passage, or canal. They are two thick 
membranous folds, constituting the sides of the external organs of gener- 
ation, and extending from the mons veneris above to the perinaeum below. 
By their union below the perinaeum, they form the forchette or fraenum. 

Externally, the labia majora consists of a delicate skin covered with 
hair, continuous with that of the thigh and pubic region. The internal 
surface resembles a mucous membrane ; is thin and smooth, of a reddish 
or pink color in youth, and pale in old age ; being supplied with depres- 
sions which secrete an oleaginous substance. In the virgin both lips a 
closely united, forming a longitudinal slit. After frequent coition and 
parturition they remain, more or less, permanently separated by the 1/. 
minor (the smaller or inner lips), protruding between them. 

They are sometimes the seat of swelling and suppuration, which is 
frequently very painful and distressing to the patient. They occasionally 



68 



FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



entirely unite, which is caused by ulceration and the close approximation 
of each labia. They are sometimes found united in this way at birth. 
The diseases of these parts are frequently the consequences of 
uncleanliness. 

Clitoris. — This is a body which is seen immediately below the 
mons veneris, by separating the external labia. It is usually about one 



Last Lumbar Vertebrae 



Sacrum 



_ Rectum ; 

here covered by Peritoneum 

— Uterus 




Urachus 

my/" 

iJL Bladder 



Mons Veneris 



Ji Symphisis Pubis 

er ■ 

Clitoris 

■J " 



FEMALE PELVIS AND ORGANS. 

inch in length, and formed similarly to the male penis. This portion of 
the organs of generation is richly endowed with nerves and vessels. It 
becomes erect during coition, and is the principal seat of the thrill or 
voluptuous sensation in the female. In nymphomania, or morbid sexual 
passion, the clitoris is sometimes cut by the knife and the parts cauterized, 
before this species of insanity can be permanently cured. The clitoris of 
the women living in a warm climate is usually larger than with those of 
colder zones. Such is its excessive length among the Abyssinian, 
Mendingan, and Ibbon women, that it is a popular usage to extirpate a 
portion of the obstruction. When the Abyssinians were converted to 



FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 09 

Christianity, this species of circumcision was abolished as a remnant of 
paganism. 

The men, however, soon rebelled against the innovation, when ft 
became necessary for the Propaganda of Rome to send a surgeon to 
restore the ancient custom. The clitoris is sometimes four or five inches 
in length, and of the thickness of a boy's penis prior to pubescence. Such 
malformation has induced unnatural satisfaction oi" the sexual instinct 
between two women, or between a so-called hermaphrodite and a virgin . 
The so-termed " Lesbian love," or the lustful embraces of women of each 
other, arose from such abnormal condition of the clitoris. This revolting 
vice derived its name from the Island of Lesbos, where it was practiced 
by the celebrated poetess Sappho. In ancient Rome there was a society 
of these creatures who were called the " Tribades." Prior to the first 
French revolution, there was a similar society in Paris, who, as if to add 
mockery to their infamy, called themselves the " Vestals." 

DELICATE CRIMSON MEMBRANE. 

Internal Labia, or Nymphs. — These are two distinct folds of 
membranes lying within the labia majora (or external lips), and attached 
above to the clitoris and external labia below. Posteriorly they are closer 
together than anteriorly ; externally they terminate in a cock's- comb- 
shaped, indented, free margin. They consist of a delicate crimson 
membrane, richly provided with nerves. Between its external and 
internal layers is concealed a loose cellular tissue and a number of mucous 
glands. 

In Hindostan, Persia, and Turkey, they are much elongated, and 
have to be removed with the knife on account of their interference in 
child-birth. In labor they protrude, and are not unfrequently lacerated, 
at the same time protecting the external labia. Among women, who have 
borne many children, such elongation is very considerable. 

It is only in females in whom they do not protrude, that the labia 
minora have the rosy color of a mucous membrane. When they protrude 
they become dry, hard, and assume a brown color. If the sexual organs 
are abused they become much relaxed, and hang down like flaps of an 
inch in width. Among the women of the Hottentots and Bosjemans, 
they are sometimer from six to eight inches long, as described by travel- 
ers. Among the northern tribes of Africa, also, they are habitually so 
loug that they have to be cut off. 



70 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 

Urethra, or Meatus Urinarius. — This is the opening into the 
bladder — abont one inch below the clitoris, and one-third of an inch above 
the npper surface of the mouth of the vagina. The meatus urinarius 
forms a small, pad-shaped ring. It is situated in a little fossa, or lacunae, 
or depression. Many females are under the impression that the urine passes 
along the vagina. The opening into the bladder terminates externally, 
and on a line with the external opening of the vagina. 

The internal labia give an external direction to the current of 
urine, and thus prevent it from passing into the vagina. It sometimes 
becomes necessary to draw off the contents of the bladder in females, for a 
considerable length of time. The patient herself, or some of her female 
friends, may soon become acquainted with the passage or use of the 
female catheter, and thus obviate the exposure which is very repugnant 
to a delicate female. The triangular space between the clitoris, meatus 
urinarius, and labia minora, is termed the vestibule of the vagina. 

NOT A TEST OF VIRGINITY. 

Hymen, or Vaginal Valve. — This is a thin membrane of semi- 
lunar shape, and stretched across the orifice of the vagina. It has gener- 
ally one or more openings for the passage of the menses. Imperforated 
hymen has been known to cause great distress in many females, at their 
first catamenial flow, the discharge of blood completely blocking up the 
vaginal canal aud extending into the uterus or womb, thus causing 
hysterical paroxysms and other alarming symptoms. In such cases it 
must be ruptured and the discharge eliminated. It is usually ruptured 
at the first sexual congress. 

Sometimes, however, it is so tense and unyielding as to require the 
aid of a knife before the sexual act can be accomplished. In virgins 
the sexual delight is increased even by the pain which the tearing of 
the hymen causes. 

The presence of the hymen was formerly considered a certain test of 
virginity, on account of its being ruptured during coition. This idea 
has long since been repudiated, for the hymen is not unfrequently lost 
through accident, diseases, etc. In many instances, it does not give way 
in the first or subsequent connections and pregnancy. In such cases, the 
spermatozoa of the male work themselves through the opening in the 
hymen, and finally pass up through the vagina, uterus, and into the 
Fallopian tubes, where impregnation occurs. Therefore, medical writers 



FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 71 

no longer regard the presence of the hymen as proof of chasity, or its 
absence a proof of immorality. 

The internal reprodnctive organs of the female consist of the Vagina, 
Uterus, Fallopian Tubes or Ovaducts, and Ovari. 

Vagina. — This lies between the rectum and the bladder, and extends 
from the external labia to the neck of the uterus or womb. It is about 
one inch in diameter in virgins, but much larger in those who have borne 
children. Its length is from five to six inches. The uterine end 
surrounds the neck of the womb and assists in supporting the same. 

The Vagina consists of three coats or distinct membranes — the exter- 
nal being fibrous, the middle muscular, and the internal mucous. The 
latter secretes a mucus, which, when the female is in good health, is merely 
sufficient to keep the vagina in a moist condition. When it does more 
than this, the secretion is discharged externally, and called Leucorrhcea 
or Whites. In coition this secretion is increased. The vagina in some 
females contracts powerfully when stimulated by the male intromittent 
organ, which increases sexual pleasures during the act of copulation. 
The office of this organ is to receive the seminal fluid and facilitate its 
passage into the uterus. During menstruation it also voids the catame- 
nial flow, and it likewise transmits the foetus and placenta during labor. 

UNNATURAL MEMBRANOUS FOLDS. 

Abnormal conditions of the vagina occasionally exist. In some 
instances it has been found wanting, there being no trace of any canal 
leading to the uterus observed. Sometimes this channel is so narrow as 
scarcely to admit a goose-quill through its length; but such cases, 
however, are very rare. 

A vertical septum, or partition, occasionally divides the vagina 
through its whole course, thus exhibiting a double vagina and a double 
hymen. Such malformation, however, does not prevent conception or 
parturition. In other instances a transverse septum may obstruct the 
vagina more or less completely. Such obstruction is seldom perfect ; 
hence, as there is usually some perforation, there may be no hindrance to 
impregnation. Such blockade may occur at any part of the vagina, and 
may result from the membranous folds being unnaturally developed, or it 
may occur from inflammation attendant upon disease or labor. If these 
septums are complete, leaving no perforations, serious results may arise 
from the accumulation of the menstrual secretion. Laceration mav occur 



72 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 

during pregnancy, while fistulous openings into the rectum or bladder 
may be formed. 

The vagina is liable to various forms of disease ; such as inflamma- 
tion, ulceration, abscess, mortification, etc.; while cysts and tumors are 
not unfrequently found. 

Uterus, or Womb. — The unimpregnated uterus lies entirely within 
the pelvis — the bladder being in front, the rectum behind, the Fallopian 
tubes on each side or laterally, and the vagina below. The form of the 
uterus has been compared to a flask with its mouth turned downward ; 
also to a pear or truncated cone. Perhaps a flattened pear will convey the 
best idea of the natural appearance of the organ. 

The uterus does not attain its full size or development until the 
period of pubescence. Previous to this time it is not much altered from 
its infantile condition. As the period of puberty approaches, there will 
be a gradual enlargement of the mammae, which fact will indicate an 
increase in the bulk and weight of the uterus. After this period of devel- 
opment, it remains of the same size throughout life in the unimpregnated 
female. The average size of the womb at puberty, or after it has attained 
its full growth, is about three inches in length and two in breadth at the 
points of attachment to the Fallopian tubes. The diameter of the neck 
is much less, being usually about one inch. 

VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WOMB. 

The uterus is usually divided into three parts — called the fundus, 
body, and neck. The fundus is that portion above the insertion of the 
Fallopian tubes. It is very dense, and firm in texture. It is a portion 
the least subject to disorganization from any cause. Other portions of 
the womb are liable to be destroyed by carcinomatous or cancerous ulcera- 
tion, while the fundus remains uninjured. It is to the fundus, also, that 
the placenta, or the appendage that connects the unborn child with the 
ereother, is most usually attached. 

The body of the uterus constitutes the principal portion of the organ 
and is that part which expands more than any other to invest the ovum. 
The walls here are usually half an inch thick and well supplied with 
blood vessels. 

The cervix, or neck, is cylindriform in shape, and composed of tissue 
similar to the body of the uterus. The walls are about the same thick- 
ness as the body, but do not approximate, thus leaving a spindle-shaped 



FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 



7?, 



cavity, called the canal or cavity of the cervix. The part below the line 
projects into the vagina and is called the vaginal portion. Around its 




WOMB AND APPENDAGES. 

The uterus is the organ of gestation, situated in the 
cavity of the pelvis, between the bladder and the rectum 
a. The body of the womb. b. The cervix, in the lower 
end of which is a transverse aperture, the os uteri ; around 
the uterus, and a little above its lower extremity, the 
vagina, c, which is here shown cut open and spread out. 
The ovaries, d, d, are placed one on either side of the 



womb, below and behind the Fallopian tubes, e, e, and 
each month for a number of years, daring the life of 
a woman, the ovum— egg— bursts from the ovary, and 
is carried forward into the womb. /. /. The broad 
ligaments. <?, g. The round ligaments, ft, ft. B 
vessels. 



base, the walls of the upper surface of the vagina are attached ; hence. 
the neck does not lie immediately within the vaginal canal, but projects 
from its upper wall, and is there seemingly suspended. Sometimes the 



74 



FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 




projection is so slight that there is difficulty in bringing the cervix or 
neck into view by means of the speculum. The position of the neck 
prevents the part from injury in coition. 

At the apex of the neck is observed a transverse fissure, which is the 
terminal end of the cervical canal. This opening is 
called the os-externum uteri, or the external orifice of 
the cervical canal. This external orifice of the womb is 
bordered by two smooth lips, which are distinguished as 
the anterior and posterior lips of the os-uteri. The 
anterior lip is the smallest, and projects but slightly into 
the vagina. This unequal form of the two lips has given 
rise to the term os-tincae — the orifice of the uterus. 

In the virgin this part of the uterus is smooth and 
firm, like soft cartilage. After the birth of many child- 
ren, it becomes much enlarged, soft, flaccid and of irre- 
gular form. The uterus being a hollow organ, possesses 
both an internal and external surface. The external 
surface is partially covered by a reflection of the 
peritoneum, which is a dense, smooth fibrous tissue that 

SECTION OF WOMB. * ,'.,,...'. _ . , n 

a. Top of uterine lines the whole abdominal cavity. It is by the reflection 
tudinai section. d?6a of this membrane that the broad ligaments are formed 

uteri (mouth), e. Up- . . ° 

per part of vagina, which we shall presently, describe. 

The internal cavity of the uterus in the unimpregnated state is 
nothing more than a narrow triangular interspace between flattened walls, 
which are either in immediate contact or are separated slightly from each 
other, and the space filled with mucus. The Fallopian 
tubes after passing into the uterus expand, trumpet-like, 
and meet the cervical canal opening upward, and the 
three openings expanding in this way, thus form the 
triangular cavity of the uterus. 

By studying the form of the cavity of this organ, all 
the phenomena of the entrance of the ovum into the 
uterus and its detection there before it becomes detached 
to the uterine walls, may be perfectly understood, uterus of ax infant 
This cavity is lined by a mucous membrane of a pale pink color, except 
in cases where death has occurred during menstruation, when it is of a 
deep red hue. This membrane is not smooth, as it appears to be when 
viewed with the naked eye, but is perforated everywhere by the orifice of 




FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 75 

minute canals or follicles. The membrane lining the cavity of the cervix 
or neck of the womb is arranged in numerous folds or plicae, which gives 
a large amount of secretory surface to a comparatively limited space. 
This mucous membrane is largely supplied with crypts or follicles, which 
secrets copiously when diseased. 

After repeated pregnancies these folds become prominent and thick- 
ened, presenting a bulbous appearance, resembling the branches of a tree ; 
hence, the origin of the old term arbor vitce (tree of life) by which this 
structure was commonly designated. 

As before remarked, the internal surface of the uterus presents, 
when examined under a microscope, a large number of small follicles 
or canals, which pursue a tortuous or meandering course and ramify in 
the substance of the mucous membrane. Besides these mucous canals 
there is a number of small closed follicles, which have an important 
bearing upon the functions of the uterus. 

LIKE A WAVING FIELD OP GRAIN. 

All mucous membranes are formed of cells called epithelium, and 
arranged in several layers of cells or in a single layer. The single layer 
is called the cylindrical epithelium, while the several layers are called 
pavement or scaly epithelium. To some parts of the cylindrical epithe- 
lium, there is a small fibre-like appendage or projection, which modifica- 
tion is called cilia. The cilia are in motion in the living body, which 
motion resembles the appearance of a field of grain when influenced by 
the wind, causing an undulating or wave-like oscillation. 

The vagina and outer portion of the cervix is covered by the scaly 
epithelium, which form of epithelium is never ciliated. Within the cervi- 
cal canal the epithelium changes its form, becoming cylindrical and cili- 
ated. Above the cervix it again becomes changed to the pavement or 
scaly epithelium. It will be necessary to allude to the different forms of 
the epithelium of the uterus when treating of leuchorrhcea and con- 
ception. 

It is supposed that the movement of the cilia is to assist the sperma- 
tozoa of the male semen, in passing into the uterus through its cervical 
or narrow portion. Immediately below the epithelium membrane and 
upon which it rests is a thin layer of albuminous liquid, called basement 
membrane, containing numerous granules, which form the nuclei 01 the 
cells of which this membrane is composed. This liquid is the matrix of 



76 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 

these cells, and is derived from the blood vessels, which form a capillary 
network, underlying the whole epithelium surface. 

The lining membrane of the uterus, with its crypts and ramifying 
follicles or canals, secrete a mucus, which is eliminated or poured out 
upon its surface, keeping it in a moist condition, when the female is in 
good health. When the same membrane is inflamed, or irritated, the 
secretion is increased and changed, constituting disease. 

The body of the uterine walls consists of muscular tissue, lined, as 
before stated, on the outside, by reflections of the peritoneum, which line 
the whole abdominal cavity, and internally by the epithelium or mucous 
membrane. This portion of the uterine walls is remarkably firm and 
solid, and constitutes the greatest bulk of the organ. 

BLOOD VESSELS AND NERVES. 

All muscular fibre in the living body possess inherent contractile 
power, which is made manifest when a stimulus is applied. In the 
uterus, after the foetus has arrived at maturity, which is nine lunar 
months, there is a peristaltic contraction taking place, but which does not 
extend to all parts of the muscular tissue of the uterus alike. The object 
is to press out the contents of the cavity ; hence the contraction or force 
must be applied to the fundus and body of the uterus, while that of the 
cervix becomes relaxed. 

In this way contraction of the upper and relaxation of the lower part 
of the uterus continues until the foetus is expelled into the vagina. The 
contractile power of the uterine walls is dependent upon an exciting cause 
— which cause is, no doubt, that of the foetus increasing in innervation or 
nerve-force, which, acting upon the muscles, causes the peculiar contrac- 
tion in child-birth. The uterus is largely supplied with blood-vessels, 
lymphatics aad. nerves. The nerves are derived from the spinal and 
sympathetic nervous system. 

Ligaments of the Uterus. — These terms are applied to several 
duplications of the peritoneum, as well as to strands or bands of muscular 
or fibrous tissue. The ligaments connect together the appendages of the 
uterus, support it, and limit its motion within the pelvis. There are four 
of these ligaments — the round, broad, utero-sacral and the utero-vesicle. 

Round Ligaments. — These are sometimes called the sub-pubic liga- 
ments. They consist of flattened cords or bands of muscular and fibrous 
tissue. These bands arise in the tendons of the internal oblique and 



FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION 77 

transversalis muscles of the abdomen, near the symphisis pubis, or front 
bone of the pelvis, and are inserted into the uterus near the commence- 
ment of the Fallopian tubes. The ligament of the right side is generally 
shorter than the left. Hence in pregnancy the uterus usually inclines to 
that side. The round ligaments are composed of smooth muscular fibres 
arranged in bundles and derived from the uterus. 

Broad Ligaments. — The peritoneum, after covering the front, back 
and fundus of the uterus, extends off in two folds or layers to the side and 
base of the pelvis, to which they are attached. By the arrangement of 
these ligaments the cavity of the pelvis is divided into two chambers — the 
anterior one containing the bladder, and the posterior, or deeper, holding 
the rectum and portion of the small intestines — while the uterus occupies 
the septum between them. 

THE FALLOPIAN TUBES. 

To the upper border of the broad ligaments are three folds, called the 
lesser wings. The central or superior of these contains the Fallopian 
tubes, and is called the mesentery of the tubes. The smaller posterior 
fold invests the ovary, together with its proper ligament ; while the third 
or anterior fold inclines obliquely toward the uterus, and constitutes the 
covering of the round ligaments. Between the laminae or folds of these 
ligaments are found the blood-vessels, lymphatics and nerves, which supply 
the uterus and its appendages. The broad ligaments are considered by 
some writers more as a mesentery than a ligament, on account of their 
investing the uterus. Its appendages are attached to the pelvis in the 
same manner as the mesentery attaches the intestines to the spine — the 
space between the folds sufficing for the conveyance of the blood-vessels 
and nerves. 

The Utero-Sacral Ligaments. — From the back side of the neck 
of the uterus, two folds of peritoneum proceed toward the rectum. 
Between these two folds are two corresponding bands of fibrous tissue 
which extend from the substance of the neck or cervix of the uterus and 
are inserted into the sacrum. The office of these ligaments is to prevent 
the womb from being forced upward in the act of conjunction, and to limit 
the descent of the organ in an erect posture of the body. 

The Utero-Vesicle Ligaments. — Opposite to the point of junction 
of the body and neck of the uterus, where the peritoneum is reflected 
forward on the bladder, are observed two lateral folds containing bum: 



78 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 

of fibrinous tissue. These constitute the anterior or utero- vesicle 
ligaments. 

Fallopian Tubes or Ovaducts. — The Fallopian tubes are the 
excretory ducts of the ovaries. The Fallopian tubes differ from the vas 
deferens, as well as every other excretory duct in the animal economy, on 
account of being entirely detached from the glands or ovaries. The Fal- 
lopian tubes or ovaducts are equally developed on both sides of the body 
in all vertebrate or back-bone animals, except in the class of Aves or birds. 
With this class the right tube becomes atrophied, or enlarged, at an 
earlier period, while the left continues to develop. 

Each ovaduct has the form of a conical tube, the base of which being 
free and directed toward the ovary, while the apex is attached to the 
uterus. The shape of the tubes resembles a horn or trumpet, particularly 
when straightened out. The length of these tubes varies in different sub- 
jects, but the average length is four and a half inches. The diameter of 
the tubes will only admit of a bristle, but the canal at its external or free 
surface will admit of a quill of ordinary size. The outer edge of the 
tubes are broken into a number of fringe-like processes of unequal length, 
constituting the fimbriated portion, or corpus fimbriatum, in the centre of 
which is seen the orifice called corpus abdominali. 

PINK LAYER OF TISSUE. 

The tubes themselves are composed of strong fibrous tissue, similar 
to the uterus, and are invested, like the latter organ, with the peritoneum, 
by being placed between the folds of the broad ligaments as before 
described. The internal coat is a mucous or epithelium membrane, but 
different from that which lines the uterus. Here are found no crypts or 
follicles as exist in the lining membrane of the uterus, but a very delicate 
pink layer of undeveloped tissue, mixed with numerous formative cells. 

Under ordinary circumstances, and when these organs are in health, 
the canals of the Fallopian tubes contain only a small quantity of viscid 
mucus. When death takes place during the menstrual period this fluid 
is found to be replaced b}^ uncoagulated blood of a dark color. The fim- 
briated, or fringed portion performs an office of more importance than it 
usually has the credit of doing. It is this portion of the tube that grasps 
the surface of the ovaries, receiving and conveying the ova to the uterus. 

From illustrations given in works a very poor idea of the beauty of 
this structure can be obtained. To comprehend the wonderful peculiarity 



FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 79 

of the delicate plicae or fringes with which the expanded mouthpiece of 
the tubes are beset, they should be examined under water. When thus 
inspected in the young and healthy subject, the funnel-shaped projections 
are arranged in numerous folds and leaflets, which are merely continua- 
tions of the similar plicae which line the cavity of tubes. The office of 
these delicate and down-like folds is doubtless to receive and entangle the 
delicate ovum in one of the numerous channels which are formed between 
the leaflets and to conduct it into the cavity of the tube toward which they 
are diverged. 

There are a great variety of forms of these funnel-shaped projections 
— no two subjects presenting the same appearance. They seem to bear a 
certain relation to the age of the persons in which they are found. In the 
young subject at the age of puberty, and in those who have borne a few 
children, they exhibit that richness and profusion of folds already 
described. 

AN IMPORTANT LIGAMENT. 

Tubo-ovarian Ligament. — This so-called ligament consists of one of 
the fimbriae, or fringes, prolonged upon the outer margin or base of the 
broad ligament or mesentery of the tube. It was supposed by the older 
anatomists that the office of this ligament was to draw the end of the tube 
upon the ovary. This view is not entertained at the present day. Its 
office is to keep the fimbriated extremity of the tube within a certain 
distance of the ovary, and permit the orifice to be easily applied over the 
gland or ovary when it is required. By this arrangement the tube is 
enabled to enclose any portion of the ovary that may be needed. This 
ligament is one and a half to two inches in length. 

Office of the Fallopian Tubes. — The Fallopian tubes perform 
a double office, receiving the ova from the ovaries, and conveying them 
into the uterus, and also receiving the spermatic fluid of the male and 
conveying it from the uterus in the direction of the ovaries, the tubes 
being the seat of impregnation. 

These conclusions are derived from observation upon mammalian 
animals as well as the human female, the functions in either case bei 
essentially the same. It is accordingly quite clearly demonstrated that 
the office of the fimbriated extremities of the Fallopian tubes is to become 
expanded over a certain portion of the ovaries — the extent oi the surface 
depending upon the relative size of the ovaries. 



80 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 

In some mammalia, as the cat, for instance, the extremity of the 
tnbe is sufficiently large to encompass the entire ovary, so that an ovum 
escaping from any part of its surface, will be conveyed or fall into the 
orifice, and be drawn into the canal. In many other animals, however, 
as well as in the human female the size of the tube is only large enough 
to cover one-third or one-half of the ovary at one time, so that in all cases, 
a selection must be made of the exact spot where the ovum is discharged, 
or else the ovum will be lost by falling into the cavity of the abdomen. 

Sterility in the female is sometimes caused by a morbid adhesion of 
the tube to a portion of the ovary. By what power the mouth of the 
tube is directed towards a particular portion of an ovary, from which the 
ovum is about to be discharged, remains entirely unknown, as does also 
the precise nature of the cause which affects this movement. 

MOVEMENT CAUSED BY CONTRACTION. 

The tubo-ovarian ligament serves at all times to keep the extremity 
of the tube in contiguity with the ovary, but by what agency the orifice 
of the tube is drawn toward and the fimbriae become expanded upon the 
ovary cannot be satisfactorily explained. The only way to account for 
the movement is the contraction of the low contractile form of fibre of 
which this ligament is composed, which is found in some of the lower- 
order animals. 

It was formerly supposed that the approximation of the mouth of the 
tube and the ovary occurred under the influence of sexual orgasm — an 
inference natural enough so long as it was believed that the ova were 
discharged from the ovary during and as a consequence of sexual congress. 
This cannot, with our present knowledge of physiology, be admitted ; for 
it is now a well-settled fact that in all mammalia, including the human 
female, the discharge of the ova or eggs takes place during the menstrual 
discharge and not during sexual congress. The approximation of the 
Fallopian tube to the ovary at such' times is to be regarded as a movement 
providing for a safe passage of, the ova to the uterus, and not that the 
venereal orgasm is the cause of the movement. 

The period of time occupied for the passage of the ovum through the 
tube is usually a few days. In the bitch, the ovum remains in the tube 
susceptible to impregnation during six or eight days. In the guinea-pig 
and rabbit, the ovum makes its transit in about three days. Less is 
known respecting the time of such passage in the human female. With 



FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 81 

the exception of abnormal cases, there are but two instances recorded in 
which the human ovum has been actually seen on "its passage to the 
uterus. 

An attempt has been made to ascertain the time an ovum is passing 
in the human female, by comparing the condition of early ova found in 
the uterus or prematurely expelled from this organ, with the last known 
date of intercourse or of menstruation, but neither of these modes of calcu- 
tion can afford any certain information. The analogies furnished by 
observation with the higher order of animals lead to the supposition that 
the time occupied for the passage of the ovum through the tube in the 
human female is not materially different from that of animals, which is 
from six to twelve days. 

TWO-FOLD OFFICE OF THE TUBES. 

The office of the tubes, as before intimated, is two-fold, namely, the 
passage of the ovum from the ovaries to the uterus, and for the convey- 
ance of the spermatozoa toward the ovaries. The rapidity with w T hich the 
spermatic fluid is capable of reaching and entering the Fallopian tubes in 
some animals is very remarkable. Bischoff observed spermatozoa in the 
ovaduct of a guinea-pig in three-quarters of an hour after coitus. The 
power by which the semen reaches the tubes is partly by its ejaculation 
from the male organ toward the mouth of the uterus, and by the ciliary 
covering of the membrane lining the neck of the womb, which assist the 
movements of the spermatozoa to ascend into that organ, by their own 
inherent power. 

In this way they are enabled to pass up into the tube, where their 
progress is then arrested by the cilia lining, the tubes having a down- 
ward movement for the purpose of conveying the ova toward the uterus, 
and retarding the movement of the spermatozoa. By this arrangement of 
the ciliated lining membrane, the egg or ovum and spermatozoa are 
brought together in the middle and lower third of the Fallopian tube, 
where impregnation usually occurs. 

In order to show the precise limits of the functions of the ovaducts, it 
will be necessary to examine particularly the evidence which servos to 
show that the ovary is the part in which the ovum is formed, and that the 
uterus is the place in which it is inverted or developed ; and also that the 
Fallopian tubes are the conducting media by which the ovum is trans- 
mitted from the formative to the recipient organ : likewise that these 



82 FEMALE ORGANS OF GENERATION. 

tubes are the seat where the ovum becomes impregnated by contact with 
the spermatozoa while on its passage to the uterus. One of the most 
remarkable circumstances connected with the generative process is the 
periods of separation of the ova from the ovary and their passage along 
the Fallopian tubes to the uterus. 

Defects in the Fallopian Tubes. — Chaussier mentions the case 
of a woman who, notwithstanding she had but one ovary, one Fallopian 
tube, and one side of the uterus absent, had borne ten living children. 
Her death having occurred a short time after the birth of her last child, 
a good opportunity was afforded for examining the parts, when this curi- 
ous fact was abundantly established. Hence the absence of one tube and 
ovary will not cause sterility, although such a misfortune must necessarily 
follow when they are entirely wanting. Sometimes the tubes are short, 
and there may be an absence of the fimbriae. The former might not 
cause sterility, but the latter would. 

Adhesions not unfrequently take place from inflammation between 
the tubes and peritoneum and intestines, which is apt to displace the 
arrangement of the parts. This is one of the most frequent causes of 
sterility, and is of that nature that cannot be obviated. The tubes may 
become distended with blood accumulated from the menstrual flow. A 
case of this kind is stated in the American Journal of Medical Science. 
It is that of a woman who, after her second confinement, had an attack of 
inflammation of the uterus, which terminated in a union of the uterine 
walls. Behind this obstruction the menstrual flow accumulated until the 
Fallopian tubes became enormously distended, when, at length, one of 
them burst, thereby causing death from the escape of blood into the 
abdominal cavity. 





HE ovaries constitute the glands appropriated 
to the formation of the female ova, or eggs. 
The ovary is not fully developed until about 
the period of puberty. It is usually about 
the size of a large chestnut when fully developed, their 
weight being not much more than an ounce. They 
lie imbedded in the broad ligaments, between the uterus 
and fringed extremity of the Fallopian tubes. Besides the connection 
which it has to the uterus through the intervention of the broad ligaments, 
it has another uniting it to the womb, known as the ovarian ligament, 
while it is also connected to the Fallopian tube by another ligament. 

During pregnancy the ovaries change position. As the uterus 
expands, it carries them along with it into the abdominal cavity. 

The ovaries, like the uterus and Fallopian tubes, are covered with 
the peritoneum, derived from broad ligaments, which form their outer 
covering. Below this outer coat we find another, composed of dense 
fibrous tissue, which forms a complete investment for the ovary. 

Ovasacs or Graafian Vesicles. — On cutting into a healthy ovary 
of a subject not too far advanced in life, a number of small vesicles or 
bladders (so small as to require the aid of the microscope to see them ) 
may be readily separated. These vesicles are named after De Graaf, their 
discoverer. In infants and young subjects these vesicles or ovasacs are 
found only upon the periphery, where they form a thick rind. The spaces 
between them are filled with blood-vessels and fibrous tissue, the latter 
affording support for the vessels, and is called, as before stated, the stroma. 

After puberty these ovasacs become buried deeper in the struct. 
even to the very base of the organ. They are always, however, the most 

So 



84 



THE HUMAN OVARIES. 



numerous upon the outer surface. The number of developed vesicles in 
each ovary visible to the naked eye was formerly computed at from twelve 
to twenty, while it was supposed that when these were exhausted by 
child-bearing and miscarriage, the power of procreation ceased. Recent 
and careful observation, however, has shown that the number of vesicles 
in each ovary amounts to thirty, fifty, one hundred, and even two hundred, 
while in very young subjects the number exceeds all computation. 

The vesicles are most easily seen in the adult ovary by making a 
perpendicular section. In this way from ten to twenty may be brought 
in view. A similar section in the ovary of an infant, and examined with 
a microscope, will reveal several hundred. Each Graafian follicle or 




STRUCTURE OF THE WOMB AND ITS APPENDAGES. 

ovasac is of an oval form, the contents of which will be now carefully 
analyzed in order to have a clear comprehension of the changes which 
occur in them during pregnancy and which result in the formation of the 
body. 

Structure of Graafian Follicle. — Each Graafian follicle is 
lined by three distinct membranes : — External, Fibrous or Vascular. — 
This membrane closely embraces the ovasac and is derived from the 
parenchyma or stroma of the ovary. If examined with the microscope, it 
will be found very vascular. Its office is to give increased support and 
protection to the ovasac which it surrounds. 

Second or Middle Coat. — This is an independent membrane, and in 
uniting with the external, forms the Graafian follicle. 

Internal Lining, called E pit helical Membrane or Membrajie Granu- 
losa, — This membrane consists of nucleated cells forming an epithelial 



THE HUMAN OVARIES. 



85 



lining, the cells of which are so lightly held together that it is doubted 
whether it is entitled to the name of membrane. This structure plays an 
important part to the ovum, which is always found lodged within it. As 
the ovasac develops, this membrane arranges itself into three distinct 
layers of granules. 

As this part of the descriptive anatomy seems intricate and difficult 
for those unacquainted with the structure of these parts, a more general 
and familiar explanation will be presented to the comprehension of the 
ordinary reader. 

The ovary may be compared to a honey-comb, the walls of the comb 
formed by stroma or 
parenchyma, as already 
described, lining these 
cells ; or, the Graafian 
vesicle is two membranes, 
which we will call the 
inner and outer coat of 
the Graafian vesicle. Be- 
sides this, there are a 
number of cells which 
De Graaf divided into 
three distinct layers or 

distinct membrane. in ^ broad ii garn ent;2, Fallopian tube, or ovaduct; 8, its canal : 1. its 

the midst Of these Cells nmDr iated extremity; 5, mouth of the latter, or pavilion ; ti, process 

attached to the ovary ; 7, 8, ovarian ligament : 9, orifice from which an 
IS IOUnd the little OVUm ovum recently escaped ; 10, a cicatrix ; 11, parovarium; 12, remains of 
1 -i .. 1 11 ,i the duct of Muller. From a virgin about eighteen years of age. 

imbued with all the pecu- 
liarities of its parent, the human female, and destined to become a living 
being endowed with physical and spiritual life. Besides this structure, 
the Graafian follicles contain albuminous fluid of a slight yellowish color, 
which is coagulable by heat. In this fluid float granules and oil globules. 
Office of the Ovary. — The ovary is to the female what the testis 
is to the male. It is the germ-preparing organ, and therefore the most 
essential part of the generative apparatus, all the other structures being 
only its accessories. The ovary is not merely an organ for the format ion 
of the ova, but is designed also for their separation and expulsion when 
they have reached maturit}^. This process is usually termed ovulation, 
and takes place without the assistance of the male. The ova which are 
formed at an early period are not called into activity until the system is 




OVARY AND FALLOPIAN TUBE OF THE LEFT SIDE. 



86 THE HUMAN OVARIES. 

sufficiently developed for the parturient act to take place without serious 
detriment to the system. 

In some of the lower orders of animals the whole of the vital ener- 
gies of the parent is exhausted by one effort of reproduction. It is proba- 
ble that long before the time arrives for the development of the ova, many 
of them have perished, their places being continually supplied with new 
formations. On the other hand, at the decline of life the power of repro- 
ducing and emitting ova altogether fails. Hence the limitation of the 
office of reproduction is alloted to that period in which the vital energies 
are at their fullest vigor, when the parent may transmit to the offspring 
a strong and vigorous constitution. 

WEAK PARENTS AND UNHEALTHY OFFSPRING. 

Most parents overlook the fact that all the weaknesses, peculiarities 
and eccentricities of the parent are conveyed to the germ at the time of 
conception, and will unfold with it and become part and parcel of the con- 
stitution of the new being. Until this is fully realized by parents and the 
difficulty remedied, it is but reasonable to suppose that the vital stamina 
of each subsequent generation will greatly degenerate or deviate from per- 
fect original or normal health. There is not an observant physician 
living who is not able to trace distinctly the weaknesses and constitutional 
imperfections of the parents, and show that they are more fully developed 
in the offspring, when they partake of them, than in the parents themselves. 

The husbandman expects when he plants imperfect seed to reap the 
fruit of such labor. That same is the case in raising unhealthy stock. 
11 A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit," neither can an unhealthy 
human being generate vigorous offspring. The principles of nature are 
self-apparent in this regard. There can be no. violation of her simple 
laws without entailing some evil or abnormal consequence. 

From what has been already stated, it will be perceived that the 
ovary in the human female has three noticeable periods. The first is that 
of preparation, extending from birth or infancy to puberty. The second 
is that state of activity which extends from puberty to the decline of life ; 
and the third period is that of decay during the decline of life. 

The First Period — Origin of the Graafian Vesicle. — There has been 
found no trace of the Graafian vesicles before birth. The first evidence 
we have of their formation is soon after birth, when they consist of a little 
transparent vesicle surrounded by granular cells, which are filled with a 



THE HUMAN OVARIES. 



87 




DIAGRAM OF A GRAAFIAN VESICLE CON- 
TAINING AN OVUM. 
1. Stroma of the tissue of the ovary. 2 and 3. 
External and internal tunics of the Graafian 
vesicle. 4. Cavity of the vesicle. 5. Thick tunic 
of the ovum or yolk-sac. 6. The yolk. 7. The 
germinal vesicle. 8. The germinal spot. 



clear fluid containing cell nuclei and granules. Surrounding this are 

observed traces of the ovasac becoming developed, which continue until a 

Graafian vesicle is formed. If the 

ovary of an infant be examined, when 

it is a few months old, by dividing it 

longitudinally, it will be seen that the 

outer surface contains a large number 

of Graafian vesicles and ova in various 

stages of development, while the central 

part is made up of blood vessels and 

connecting tissue, which ultimately 

becomes similarly formed to the outer 

or peripheral ^portion. 

The Middle Period, or Second 
Stage of Growth and Maturation, is 
the one to which the most interest is 
attached. During certain portions of this period or epoch the ovary is 
employed in ripening and emitting ova, and is a periodic occurrence in 
the human female as well as in the various orders of animals. The 
emission of ova will occur at different periods in different animals, these 
differing again from those occurring in the human female. 

In the roe, for instance, Bischoff has discovered that she emits ova 
only once a year, which is the latter part of July and during August ; and 
also that it is only at this period of the year that the ovary of the female 
contains ripe ova and the testes of the male ripe semen ; hence, this is 
the only time when the animal can become impregnated. 

In many animals the ripening of the ova and discharge occur more 
frequently. Especially is this the case in the human female, such period- 
icity occurring, no doubt, once a month, or during the menstrual dis- 
charge. This will be found more fully demonstrated in the article on 
Menstruation. 

The office of the ovary from puberty to decline of life, is to mature 
ova and discharge them monthly, during which operation the whole 
energy of the ovary is called into action. After an ovum has been expelled, 
the wound made in the walls of the ovary becomes healed, and the action 
is transferred to another set of follicles, which ripen and pass through the 
same order of changes as before. 

The ovary cannot be said ever to be, during this period o\ lite, in a 




88 THE HUMAN OVARIES. 

perfect state of rest. New ova are all the while undergoing development ; 
hence, ova may be found in the ovary in all stages of ripening. 

There are two circumstances which arrest the process of ovarian 
development, namely, utero-gestation or pregnancy and lactation or nurs- 
ing. Occasionally exceptions may be made to this rule ; nevertheless, 
the evidence collected favors the belief that pregnant women, and those 
who suckle, emit no ova during the continuance of either. 

When the period approaches, or has already arrived at which the 
female is in a condition to propagate, and ready to receive the male, a 
number of Graafian follicles increase in size and approach nearer the 
surface of the ovary, presenting the appearance of round grains, so close 
set as to give the semblance of a bunch of grapes. When 
these enlarge in size it is occasioned by an increase of the 
fluid in the follicle, the same being supplied by the minute 
capillaries or blood-vessels, giving it a bright red color. 
While these changes are going on within the follicle, prepar- 
the ovum, and a ti ns are being also made externally for the rupture of the 
centre walls of the ovary. The part to be thus broken becomes 
exceedingly red from the accumulation of blood while the 
membrane which encloses the Graafian follicle becomes thinner and 
thinner, by pressure and absorption, until they are finally ruptured, and 
the ovum expelled, leaving a clot of blood and a bloody fluid. 

If an examination be made of a healthy woman who has previously 
menstruated regularly up to the time of death, there will be found in each 
ovary one or more Graafian follicles in the condition just described. As 
the Graafian follicles repair, they come toward the outer margin or 
periphery. Only one of these ripens, as a general rule, at one time. 
Sometimes two or three are developing and preparing for being ruptured 
at the same period. If the bloody fluid be washed out of the Graafian 
vesicle after the ovum has been expelled, its inner surface will be found 
intensely red, looking like an inflamed surface. 

Period of Rupture of Graafian Follicle and Escape of the 
Ovum. — This period is called by Pouchet the period of parturition of the 
follicle. This is after the ovum has passed through its various changes 
of development, and is expelled from the Graafian follicle in order that it 
may enter the Fallopian tube. Therefore the ovary is to the ovum what 
the womb is to the foetus. It nourishes it, and when it is matured, expels 
it into the Fallopian tube, where it passes through other changes, 



THE HUMAN OVARIES. 



82 



provided it becomes impregnated by the spermatozoa while traversing this 
channel. 

In animals where the egg is large, it (the egg) will assist in rupturing 
the ovasac. In the human female the ovum is too small to effect any 
such purpose in order to liberate itself. It lies in the Graafian vesicle 
perfectly passive and uses no mechanical effort whatever for its own 
liberation. The process by which this takes place is compared to the 
bursting of an abscess, with which mode of rupture nearly every person 
is familiar. The accumulation of the liquid before described within the 
follicle causes a pressure against its walls, and this kept up for a short 
time, will render them so thin by absorption, that a very slight force is 
sufficient to rupture the sac and expel the core 
and contents of the same. 

In the human female two or more follicles 
may become matured or ripened at the same 
time, and burst simultaneously. Should this 
occur, and each become impregnated in the 
Fallopian tube, they will severally develop a 
new being. In this way twins and triplets are 
produced at the same time. 

There are some remarkable features about 
the healing of the rupture of the membranes of tube (observed only en 
the Graafian follicle, after the ovum has been THE RABBIT )- 
expelled, as well as in the changes that take place in the follicle itself. 
The changes are very different if pregnancy does not occur after the ovum 
is expelled, from those changes which take place when impregnation is 
effected. In order to the comprehension of this subject in a proper 
manner, it will be necessary to speak first of the changes that take place 
in the follicle and its obliteration without pregnancy, and those which 
occur when fecundation follows the rupture. 

Without Pregnancy. — Immediately after the expulsion of the ovum, 
the ruptured membranes gradually approximate, the redness disappea 
and an exudation is thrown out, which causes the part to become agglu- 
tinated, precisely as is observed in a boil after it has discharged its 
contents. When the parts become united there remain the common 
cicatrix observed in the healing of other tissue. While the healing is 
going on, the follicle itself shrinks to a very small dimension, and by the 
time one or more follicles have passed through the same series, which will 




LAYER OF ALBUM EX EN THE 



90 THE HUMAN OVARIES. 

require a month or two, the cavity of the follicle will be shrunk so as 
scarcely to admit of a body of the size of a small pin-head, the membrane 
lining the same appearing puckered. The follicles continue to decrease 
in size until they become entirely obliterated, giving room to other vesicles 
or follicles, which pass through the same stages of growth and decay. By 
this frequent obliteration of the follicles, which is continually taking 
place during the menstrual period of the female, the ovaries, in advanced 
life, exhibit a large number of pits and furrows, at once affording a 
striking proof that the discharge of ova or eggs from the ovary occurs 
independent of sexual congress. 

After Pregnancy. — Very different are the changes which take place 
in the Graafian follicles when impregnation occurs from those which 

appear in the absence of impregnation. In 
both cases, it is true, there is the same 
obliteration of the follicle, but in the latter 
it is much slower than in the former case. 
The cicatrix will form in about the same 
time in each, while the obliteration of the 
vesicle after pregnancy may not be effected 
under thirteen or fourteen months. This 
process is also upon a very extensive scale. 
When impregnation has occurred, all parts 
of the generative apparatus are brought 
eipe ovum surrounded by cells un( } er t he influence of a common stimulus. 

This is particularly the case with the uterus, which very soon 
receives a large supply of blood. The blood vessels of the ovaries and 
uterus, together with their nerves, being so intimately associated, any 
stimulation of either will act similarly upon all the others. The vessels 
becoming loaded with blood, a greater amount of vital action takes place 
both in the ovary and the uterus. This is not the case when impregna- 
tion does not occur. When the ovum is thrown off from the ovary, it 
gradually subsides into a quiescent state, while the lacerated membranes 
of the vesicle and ovary unite and thus obliterate the follicle. 

The stimulus consequent upon the union of the male and female 
germ seems to retard these changes — setting up new ones, that accom- 
plish the same ends, although requiring a longer time for their accom- 
plishment. In impregnation, the inner membrane of the follicle becomes 
thickened by a deposit of yellow oil granules. The Graafian follicle, at 




THE HUMAN OVARIES. 



91 



the time of rupture, may occupy from one-fourth to one-half of the ovary, 
and will continue to occupy this space until the third or fourth month of 
pregnancy ; while if this does not occur the follicle will disappear in a 
month or two months. After four months of pregnancy, the follicle 
gradually diminishes — the inner coat rapidly increasing by a deposit of 
the oil globules, and this thickening encroaching upon the cavity, causing 
its diminution. The parts surrounding the follicle at this time become 
hard and swollen ; likewise the ovary, which is larger than its fellow. 

The deposit of thin yellow oil globules within the follicle has given 
rise to the supposition of the formation of a new membrane, thus leading 
to erroneous conclusions. After the fourth or fifth month of pregnancy 
the follicles begin to diminish more rapidly and so continues until the 
time of birth, or nine months, when the ovasac will have lost much of its 
brightness, the cavity being nearly filled. Some four or five months after 
delivery, the cavity is entirely obliterated, the yellow appearance subsid- 
ing into a pale or white line, the cicatrix also disappearing meanwhile. 

Does the Discharge of Ova Take Place without Sexual Con- 
gress ? — Much controversy has occurred, at various times, in regard to 
the discharge of the ovum. All observers down to Barry contend that 
coitus was the sole cause of such phenomena, and that it could only take 
place during sexual congress. Late observers have exploded this idea. 
Coste, Bischoff and other modern physiologists, now regard coitus as 
having nothing to do with the discharge of ova, and clearly demonstrate 
that they ripen and are discharging periodically without reference to 
conjunction, and thrown off from the uterus. This is the case in all 
mammalia, including the human female. This subject will be found 
more fully treated in the article on Menstruation. 





effect of 
Impregnating the Ovum 




CHAPTER VIII. 

HE period of decline of life commences at the 
termination of the catamenia, or menstrual 
flow, when, if the ovaries be examined, they 
will present a wrinkled, corrugated appearance, 
full of pits and tortuous lines. If a section be 
made in the ovary, there is found no trace of 
Graafian follicles, or one or two may be observed 
disintegrated into small masses or sacs of cartil- 
aginous hardness. Generally, however, noth- 
ing remains except the dense parenchyma or 
stroma which forms the interior of the ovary. 
On the other hand, if the ovary be examined from 
puberty to the critical period or change of life, it will be 
found largely supplied with blood-vessels, which may be 
seen ramifying all its parts. After the process of ovulation 
has entirely ceased, the ovary begins to suffer the wasting 
of age, presents a general pallor, and receives only that sufficiency of 
blood to answer for the nutrition of the shrivelled organ. 

Effects of Extirpating the Ovaries. — The removal of one 
ovary does not affect materially the reproductive power. Hunter, in order 
to test the effects of extirpating one of them, procured two young sows 
of the same farrow, and removing one of the ovaries from one of them, 
kept both animals under the same circumstances, in order to observe the 
effects of breeding upon them. They commenced engendering when two 
years old, the spayed animal took the boar earlier than the perfect female, 
and both continued to breed at nearly the same time. The mutilated sow 
produced her litters until she was six years old, at which time she had 
had eight farrows and brought forth seventy pigs altogether, and would 
92 



EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 93 

not take the male afterward. The other continued breeding until she 
was eight years old and had thirteen farrows, yielding one hundred and 
sixty-two pigs, when she ceased to breed. The result was that the perfect 
animal continued to breed two years longer, and produced more than 
double the number of the spayed one. 

Mr. Potts removed both of these organs in the human female, in the 
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, on account of swellings of both groins 
attended with much pain. The woman was in full health, large-breasted, 
and had menstruated regularly. These tumors proved to be the two 
ovaries, which had descended in the form of double hernia. The woman 
subsequently enjoyed good health ; became thinner and more muscular, 
while her breasts disappeared and her menstruation ceased altogether 
after the operation. 

DEVELOPMENT OF OVARIES ARRESTED. 

An interesting example of the arrest of development of the ovaries 
is preserved in the Museum of King's College, London. The prepara- 
tion consists of the entire internal organs of a young woman who died 
at the age of nineteen, without having menstruated. The ovaries, as 
well as the rest of the organs, are no larger than a child's of three years. 
The mammae are small, the external organs only partially developed, 
while the whole frame is formed upon a very feeble scale. 

The ovum may be described as a spheroid mass of organized 
substance, enclosed in a vascular membrane, and when fecundated by the 
sperm of the male, undergoes various changes or development until it 
is unfolded into an embryo. All animals with the exception of some of 
the lower, as the Infusoria, propagate their species and maintain them by 
means of the ova and sexual generation. It seems to be a law of Nature 
that species can only be propagated in this way. The result of fecunda- 
tion is the formation of an embryo from the ovum, which by progresssive 
growth arrives at maturity and assumes the form, structure and habits, 
as well as weaknesses and imperfections, of its parents. 

The ovum has two phases or stages of existence. The one is in 
connection with the female organ, which provides material for its develop- 
ment until it arrives at the stage of maturity, when it is expelled from its 
bed or Graafian vesicle. The other is the influence exerted over it when 
it conies in contact with the fructifying principle ot the male, in which a 
new power is awakened and developed. The ovum, therefore, cannot be 



94 EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 

considered as having arrived at maturity (though such is the case, so far 
as its own structure is concerned) until it is united to the spermatozoa of 
the male ; for without it, its progress is arrested so far as regards its 
ultimate development. 

The eggs of different animals vary in size. The eggs of birds 
increase in size in relative proportion to the size of the creature. The 
eggs of the iEpyorus, an extinct bird, is very enormous. The remains of 
one of these, with its eggs, were recently discovered in Madagascar. The 
circumference of this egg } in its long diameter, is said to be three feet, 
and its short diameter two feet four inches. It must have contained 
within its shell, according to M. Isidore Geoffroy, ten quarts, or nearly 
six times as much as an ostrich's eggs, or one hundred and forty-eight 
times as much as an ordinary hen's egg, or fifty thousand times as much 
as a humming bird's egg. 

Number of Ova. — The number of ova developed in the female sex 
during the whole of her life, vary very much, and probably cannot be 
ascertained. 

GREAT QUANTITIES OF EGGS. 

The ovaries of some kinds of fish, especially the herring and the 
halibut, have been found to contain a vast number of eggs. The African 
ant is known to lay thousands of eggs every twenty-four hours. In 
short, all through the animal world wonderful provision is made for the 
reproduction of the species. In birds and those animals that have 
large eggs only a few of them arrive at maturity. In the common fowl 
that lays daily two-thirds of a year, a product amounting to thirty pounds, 
or ten times the weight of the animal, is the result, while the number of 
eggs produced in the course of the bird's natural existence will not be less 
than twelve hundred. The number of ovula in the common hen will 
amount to thirty or forty thousand ; hence, as twelve hundred eggs are 
only produced on an average from each, it will be seen that a large 
number of ovula never arrive at maturity. 

In the human female but few ova ripen or come to maturity at a time- 
Thus several ova may be discharged at every menstrual period for about 
thirty years of life. The number thus discharged can scarcely be less 
than four hundred (probably many more), each one of which if fully 
developed, by being brought in contact with the fructifying seed of the 
male, would be capable of bringing forth a living being. It has been 
stated that the human ovum is about one hundredth of an inch in diameter, 



EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 



95 





or of the size of a pin's point ; but small as it is, each one is capable of 
unfolding a human being. 

It is interesting to trace the ovum and observe the changes which 
take place as it passes through the Fallopian tubes. Its development in 
the ovary and expulsion therefrom has already been noticed, while a 
description of its structure has been given, together with the manner in 
which the fimbriated portion of the tube has grasped the ovum. As these 
changes take place before the egg reaches the uterus, it will be necessary 
to dwell somewhat particularly upon such processes or phenomena. This 
part of the subject will be better understood by presenting everything 
that necessarily has a bearing upon all such changes. The changes that 
take place in the ova of 
animals, during their 
passage along the tubes, 
will also be explained, 

as there is a close anal- §L/Ll>i> 

ogy between the func- 
tions of the reproductive 

organs of animals and the ovum on arriving in 
the human female. THE fallopian tube. 

The way in which the ovum is conveyed along the passage of the 
Fallopian tubes after its reception in the fimbriae of the ovaduct, is 
explained by the peculiar structure of the parts. The tube is lined, as 
before stated, by delicate ciliated membrane, the movements of which cilia, 
according to Henle, is toward the uterus, which is sufficient, with the 
peristaltic action or contraction of its walls, to convey the ovum into the 
womb. 

The time occupied for the passage of the ovum through the Fallopian 
tubes, is not definitely known ; but judging from observations made on 
animals, the period is supposed to be from six to twelve days. In the 
bitch and rabbit it is from six to ten days. 

An ovum after being expelled from the ovary, is invested by a portion 
of the membrana granulosa which formerly lined the Graafian follicle, and 
in this condition is received into the Fallopian tube. These cells are 
closely attached to the zona pellucida, or outer membrane of the ovum. 
They give the egg the appearance of being surrounded by rays. This is 
characteristic of a fully developed and ripened ovum. After its pass 
into the tube, the great change it undergoes is the stripping off of the ray- 



THE OVUM SLIGHTLY AD- 
VANCED IN THE TUBE. 



96 



EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 





like appendage of cells. This is affected during its transit along the 
upper third of the tubes. 

If impregnation does not now occur, the ovum or egg perishes. It 
cannot proceed any further in its development toward the production of an 
embryo. If the ovum should become impregnated several important 
changes take place, which are as follows : The zona pellucida, or outer 
membrane of the egg^ having thrown off its outer cell-covering, and the 
spermatozoa have no difficulty in penetrating the soft albuminous 
membrane that encloses the yelk. When the spermatozoa penetrate the 
zona, the yelk contracts. This fact was first observed by Newport, who 
called the space the " respiratory chamber." This interspace is filled with 

a transparent fluid. After 
the contraction takes place 
another remarkable 
change occurs, which is 
the revolving of the yelk. 
This rotation is effected 
by the aid of cilia, which 
line the inner surface of 
the yelk. About this time 
a small body, or there may be several bodies, seen in the " respiratory " 
space between the yelk and zona which is supposed to have some connec- 
tion to the cleverage of the yelk, which is about commencing. 

The experiments of Newport settle beyond dispute, that segmenta- 
tion or division of the yelk is the result of pregnancy alone, and never 
takes place without it. The segmentation commences first by a cleverage 
of the yelk into two equi-divisions, then into four equal parts, and so 
continues dividing in geometrical progression until the yelk is broken up 
in fine granular masses, with which the generative force of the male 
sperm is equally divided. How the yelk divisions take place before the 
ovum reaches the uterus is not certainly known. The fifth division, 
however, has been observed by Bischoff at the lower extremity of the 
Fallopian tubes. 

The only additional change observed taking place in the tubes is a 
deposit of albumen around the zona pellucida, which takes place when 
the ovum is passing the middle and lower third of the tube. These 
occurrences are so uniform that the different offices for different portions 
of the Fallopian tubes may be readily determined. 



OVUM STILL MORE AD 
VANCED IN THE TUBE. 



THE OVUM FROM THE LOWER 
END OF FALLOPIAN TUBE. 



EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 97 

The first or upper third is appropriated to the reception of the ovum, 
and for removing the adventitious covering of cells, while it also prepares 
the ovum for the operation of the spermatozoa. In the middle third, the 
respiratory chamber is formed, and here the rotation of the yelk com- 
mences. In the lower third the cleverage takes place, as also the deposit 
of albumen. 

If these views of Bischoff be correct, it must be in the middle or 
lower third of the tube that impregnation occurs, or the ovum will perish. 
By the time the ovum reaches the lower third, in most animals, particu- 
larly the dog and guinea-pig, the a heat " is passed, and the animal will 
not permit coitus. 

OFFICES OF THE FALLOPIAN TUBES. 

To sum up the offices of the Fallopian tubes, they may be stated as 
follows : — 

ist. To receive the spermatic fluid from the uterus, and convey it 
upward through the entire canal. 

2d. To receive the unimpregnated ovum from the ovary, and convey 
it in a directly opposite course for the purpose of meeting the male sperm. 

3d. To afford protection to the ovum during its brief pilgrimage 
through the tube, and to deposit on its outer surface additional material, 
increase its bulk and finally convey it into the cavity of the uterus. 

The next question which arises in connection with this subject is — 
How far are these conclusions applicable to the human female in regard 
to gestation ? 

In the human female, that marked indication of sexual excitement 
known as " heat " in animals is rarely ever manifested, although it exists 
to some degree at each menstrual period. It is well known that the 
liability to impregnation is much greater immediately after the cessation 
of the menstrual flow than a little later during the intervals of the 
monthly turn. Observation would seem to strengthen the view which 
has been advanced, that impregnation occurs, as a rule, within twelve or 
fourteen days after the cessation of the menstrual discharge. It has also 
been known to occur after this period, but very seldom. 

This may be explained by the casting of an ovum during an inter- 
menstrual period which was nearly ripe at the cessation ot the previous 
discharge; while it is quite possible, also, that an ovum may be retained 
in the tube longer than the period named, owing to some retarded action 

7 



98 EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 

of the regular functions of the co-relative parts. It may, however, be 
safely stated, as a general rule, that impregnation takes place within 
fourteen days after the cessation of the catamenial period. There are 
exceptional cases, as a matter of course, to every law. 

The difference in the amount of formative material in the ovum of 
the bird is owing to the manner in which the embryo is supplied with 
its sustenance. Here the whole amount of * nourishment required is 
provided in the egg before it is detached from the parent. In the human 
female and viviparous animals, the material for growth is derived from 
the maternal parent, whether afforded by the placenta or some analogous 
structure. 

The egg of the ordinary domestic fowl may be regarded as the type 
of oviparous animals. A knowledge of its development will enable any 
one to comprehend the difference which exists between the eggs of the 
human female and viviparous animals, or those that develop with the egg 
the necessary material for growth independent of the parent. In such 
cases, normal temperament and a supply of oxygen are all that is neces- 
sary for development of the young, provided the egg has been fecundated 
before being thrown off by the female. A varnished egg will not hatch, 
nor can this take place if one-half of the shell be thus treated. 

SIZE AND WEIGHT OF A FOWL'S EGG. 

The average size of a fowl's egg is two and a quarter inches in long 
diameter and one and three-quarters in the short diameter, the average 
weight being two ounces. Double-yelked eggs usually weigh about three 
ounces. The weight of the yelk is usually about one- third of the whole, 
while that of the albumen and shell are equal to the other two-thirds. If 
eggs are kept exposed they become lighter, losing about one grain per 
day, which is owing to evaporation through the shell, it being of a porous 
nature. 

During incubation or hatching of the eggs they lose rapidly, amount- 
ing in twenty-one days from sixteen to twenty per cent., or about one- 
sixth of the entire substance. Out of this amount of loss only five or six 
per cent, consists [of water ; the balance is the result of chemical decom- 
position, or most probably of combustion, by the union of oxygen with 
carbon, producing carbonic acid, which passes off through the shell. The 
shell of the egg consists principally of carbonate of lime, held together 
by animal matter, while the white is chiefly pure albumen. The yelk is 



EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 99 

of oily matter, albumen, and about two per cent, of salts, with fifty-four 
per cent, of water. 

The albumen with the sulphur and salts are immediately employed 
in the growth of the embryo, while the oily matter serves for combustion 
in keeping up the temperature during incubation. If an egg be exam- 
ined immediately after being laid, there will be found directly under the 
shell at the larger end, a small space, called the air space, which increases 
the longer the egg is kept. This space also increases very rapidly during 
incubation, being caused by the evaporation of water and chemical decom- 
position, as before stated. 

HOW THE EGG IS PERFECTED. 

Structure of the Egg — Process of Formation. — Many fowls 
lay an egg every twenty-four hours during a portion of the season, while 
others lay every second day, or for two or three days in succession, at a 
later hour each day, and then intermit for one day. Other fowls lay 
regularly every thirty-six hours. As already intimated, the time occu- 
pied in the passage of the egg through the ovaduct in the dog, guinea-pig, 
rabbit and human female is from six to twelve days. In a fowl this 
transit is about twenty-four hours. If a fowl that has laid daily be killed 
six hours after the last egg is passed, the ovaduct will be found blocked 
up with a yelk that has been taken up by the fimbriated extremity of the 
tube, or it may be just grasping it. Sometimes the fimbriated extremity 
of the tube unfortunately fails to enclose the yelk when expelled from the 
ovary. In such cases it falls into the abdomen and may be removed by 
absorption, or it may produce peritoneal inflammation and death to the 
fowl. 

During the passage through the upper or first two- thirds of the 
ovaduct, the albumen of the egg is deposited in a period of from three to 
four hours, according to Coste. It is proper here to remark that the yelk 
of the egg when it is expelled from the ovary is the same in structure as 
that of the rabbit and human female, before described ; and that it is 
during the passage of the egg through the tube that the white and shell 
is formed, but it is not entirely perfected until after its lodgment in the 
uterus. 

White of the Egg. — This constitutes several layers, and commences 
forming as soon as it enters the Fallopian tube. At first it is a thin layer 
immediately investing the yelk, which subsequently becomes condensed 

LOf C. 



100 EFFECT OF IMPREGNATING THE OVUM. 

into a membrane and the two narrow cord-like appendages, which were 
first albnmen bnt afterward become twisted and form the membrane. As 
the yelk descends, the faster is the accnmnlation of the albumen round 
the yelk, giving to the egg its oval shape. 

During the passage of the egg and formation of the albumen and 
shell, there is a great determination of blood to the several parts of the 
duct. The egg does not descend in a straight line, but in a spiral 
manner, which gives the spiral shape to the white of the egg and the 
twist to the chalazse. The egg remains in the uterus from twelve to 
eighteen hours, in order to complete the formation of the shell. The 
lining membrane of the uterus is different from the membrane lining the 
ovaduct — the former containing follicular glands which secrete the sub- 
stance for the shell. 

As soon as the egg enters this part of the tube, a thick white fluid is 
poured out which is soon deposited and coagulated on a thin membrane 
covering the white. At first the shell is soft, but it soon acquires the 
hardness which is characteristic of the egg when laid. 

In reptiles a similar arrangement is observed during the passage of 
the ova along the Fallopian tube. Instead of one, there are several in the 
tube at the same time, the same with rabbits. 





NORMAL PROCESS 



OF 



MENSTRUATION. 




mnnmi 



CHAPTER IX. 

Uv the functions of the generative organs of 
woman are not established without subjecting 
her to annoyances, nay, even to afflictions and 
sufferings, which need salutary counsel. 

Woman is subject to the process of men- 
struation for the best period of her life. Dur- 
ing this long term of thirty years of her 
womanhood, her health is dependent on the 
accomplishment of that function ; according to 
the success or failure of that process she either 
flourishes in the enjoyment of health or lan- 
guishes in pain and weakness. 
A girl is seldom the subject of special anxiety until she 
g\£ enters the state of puberty ; like a boy, she runs and plays, 
and nature undertakes no peculiar mode of growth sugges- 
tive of sexual individuality. Puberty, although apparently 
sudden, is effected gradually, and not always without accident. Its 
manifestation in menstruation may be so abnormal as to constitute a 
real malady. / 

A girl in a perfect state of health may be taken by such acute and 
severe symptoms as to lead one to suspect indications of a dangerous 
illness. 

Parents, also, have been misled by the peculiar complaints into the 
belief that sickness was simulated, when, in reality, their daughter should 
have been rather an object of sympathy. Again, ignorant attendants, 
believing such an indisposition to be but an accidental attack ot colic 
from indigestion or otherwise, have filled girls to drunkenness with 
alcoholic stimulants. 

Menstrual colic having been mistaken also for a symptom of worms, 
or for some other imaginary ailment, medicaments, unfit for the girl's 
condition, have been administered, to the detriment of her general health. 

101 



102 NORMAL PROCESS OF MENSTRUATION. 

It cannot be denied, however, that the symptoms are often obscure 
and confusing, because acute pain in the abdomen, accompanied by tight- 
ness and oppression, may suggest flatulency; irregular and heavy pain 
may suggest the presence of worms ; yet, the age of the girl, the sudden- 
ness of the attack in the midst of good health, the periodical return of 
these indispositions, the regularity of the pulse, the natural condition of 
the skin, the cleanness of the tongue, the absence of indigestion or of 
diarrhoea, and the shortness of the pain should rather suggest a natural 
preparation for the menstrual flux. Moreover, menstrual colics are 
almost always attended by coldness of the feet. 

These colics are generally relieved by hot foot-baths, application of 
heat over the region of the uterus ; a bag of hot hops, or a hot corn-meal 
poultice. If there are complications, as tendency of blood to the head, 
neuralgias, pain in the chest, etc., some medical treatment may be required 
about which a physician should be consulted. 

CAREFUL TREATMENT FOR GIRLS. 

The establishment of menstruation is not unfrequently attended by 
serious constitutional difficulties, as chlorosis (green-sickness) and hysteria. 
Its manifestation may also be attended by such modifications of the general 
system as will result in an aggravation, or a decided amelioration, of the 
girl's usual condition. All of the special maladies incidental to men- 
struation will be treated hereafter, separately. 

The appearance of the menses should be the signal for a girl to 
seek rest in a horizontal position, and for the avoidance of extreme cold 
and heat. Her beverages should be warm rather than iced. We have 
known a glass of ice water, taken while the body was heated by exercise, 
to suppress the menses instantly, and induce severe colic pains. The 
dress should be easy, loose around the chest and abdomen. Linen-wear 
should be discarded at such times, for it is too great a conductor of heat, 
allowing the body to cool too rapidly. 

Delicate and nervous persons should adopt a system calculated to 
improve the general health ; as exercise in the open air, riding on horse- 
back, taking trips to the country. If inclined to melancholy they should 
seek distraction in innocent pleasures, and in the company of congenial 
friends. 

During the period of menstruation, woman should be an object of 
solicitude, for even her moral nature may, during that time, be exposed to 



NORMAL PROCESS OF MENSTRUATION. 103 

changes which appear extraordinary to an observer. One author says 
that it is seldom that menstruation occurs without inducing some change 
in the usual demeanor of women. The majority of them are subject to 
weariness, vague desires, melancholy ; they may be more irritable in their 
manners, more impressionable, easily frightened and discouraged ; they 
are also more liable to take cold and more susceptible to the changes of 
the weather ; in other words, they are the victims of many little infirm- 
ities, which ought to be recognized and treated with kindness, rather than 
ridicule. 

Those who are naturally sensitive should be surrounded by soothing 
influences, and not exposed to anything that exalts the imagination. The 
diet should be light, and free from rich condiments and stimulating spices. 
The bath should be warm, and under no circumstances should the body 
be immersed in cold water immediately before the appearance of menstru- 
ation or during its continuance, even though it had been the habit to do 
so at other times. The feet should always be kept warm and dry. 

GOOD NOURISHMENT REQUIRED. 

Women of lymphatic temperament, of scanty menstruation, should 
be nourished generously with rare beef, roasted or broiled ; rich soups, 
particularly of peas and beans. A little light wine, as claret or sherry, 
would be beneficial. Such women should also dress warmly, occupying 
well ventilated apartments, and make repeated excursions to the country. 

Mothers should be particularly attentive to instruct their girls at the 
time when the generative functions are likely to commence ; for it has 
often occurred that the unexpected appearance of blood on the garments 
has frightened girls into serious illnesses. It is also necessary that they 
should be made acquainted with all the causes that may produce suppres- 
sion or derangement. 

Ignorance has often led girls into errors which they would have 
avoided, had they known the serious consequences that would follow. 
Exposure to the inclemency of the weather, dampness, heat or cold ; 
excessive exercise in walking, dancing, riding, playing or otherwise ; 
exposing the heated body to a draught of cold air ; plunging the feet into 
cold water ; a sudden emotion, as fright, passion, joy ; a violent pain; a 
drink of ice-water, particularly when the body is warm ; a sudden check 
of perspiration — may induce immediate suppression and all its concom- 
itant painful results. 



104 NORMAL PROCESS OF MENSTRUATION. 

In recapitulating the indispositions to which a young girl may be 
exposed during the period of menstruation, another author says : " If she 
is strong and robust, she may be tormented with vertigo, motes before her 
eyes, buzzing in her ears, flashes of heat in her face, nervous or conjestive 
headache, sleeplessness, and even convulsions. Her eyes may be 
conjested, and shed tears easily ; her pulse bouncing and frequent; her 
temporal arteries throb; she may be subject to palpitation of the heart; 
to bleeding of the nose ; to impeded respiration, and to sighing. She may 
be generally oppressed, or subject to pains and colic, and to fatigue from 
the least exercise. 

a If she is feeble and lymphatic, she may be subject to conjestion of 
the head, although her face may be pale, her eyes languid, her pulse weak 
and slow ; — also to palpitation of the heart, but not so violent as in the 
sanguine temperament. Her digestion may be feeble, yet she may desire 
indigestible substances, and sometimes articles entirely unfit for her condi- 
tion. She may be subject to heaviness in the region of the stomach, to 
lassitude, to weakness even, and to the flow of leucorrhcea." So that the 
occurrence of symptoms like these, at the time of life spoken of, need not 
be looked on as alarming, but should, nevertheless, be carefully watched 
and attended to. 

CAUSES OF ABNORMAL DERANGEMENT. 

The causes of functional derangement may be divided into two 
classes : — Remote and Immediate, Under the first head let us consider 
several points. 

Temperaments are often the predisposing cause of diseases of the 
menstrual organs. Women of lymphatic and nervous-lymphatic tempera- 
ment are more prone to scanty menstruation, to leucorrhcea (" whites "), 
and hysteria, while the sanguine or nervous-sanguine temperaments are 
more liable to excessive and to painful menstruation. Where the nervous 
temperament predominates, the susceptibility to excitement and to external 
impressions predisposes the individual to conditions which disturb the 
natural exercise of the menstrual functions. 

Diet and Nourishment. Insufficient, excessive, or improper food, 
disturbing the equilibrium of the vital forces, deranging the stomach, 
affecting the heart and the circulation, may induce such irritability of the 
nervous system as to predispose the organs of generation to functional 
derangements 



NORMAL PROCESS OF MENSTRUATION. 105 

Insufficiency of nourishment impoverishes the blood, lessens the vital 
force, weakens the action of the heart in the distribution of blood ; and in 
the general insufficiency of the circulation of that all-important fluid the 
ovaries and the womb become the participants, manifesting their disorder 
in the scanty, pale, watery menstrual fluids, in leucorrhcea, and the relaxa- 
tion of the muscles of the womb and its ligaments. 

Excess of food, on the other hand, overtasks the functions of the 
stomach, distends its capacity as well as that of the intestines, and finally 
weakens digestion and the power of assimilation. Blood increases in 
quantity, distending the vessels and inducing general plethora. Excess 
of food then, and, particularly, if composed of highly seasoned dishes, 
overloads and irritates the system, until the womb and the ovaries, over- 
come by the plethora and irritability incidental to that condition, express 
their abnormal condition by painful menstruation, irritable uterus, etc. 

HABITS OP WOMEN OF FASHION. 

A young beauty, were she as fair as Hebe, and elegant as the God- 
dess of Love herself, would soon lose these charms by a course of 
immoderate eating, drinking, and late hours. Some of my readers may 
start at the idea, and wonder how it can be, that any lady could be guilty 
of either immoderate eating or drinking. But when I speak of inordinate 
eating, etc., I do not mean feasting like a glutton, or drinking to intoxi- 
cation. My objection is not more against the quantity than the quality 
of the dishes which constitute the usual repast of women of fashion. 

Their breakfast not only sets forth tea, coffee, and chocolate, but hot 
bread and butter. The last two, when taken constantly, are hostile to 
health and female delicacy. The heated grease which is their principal 
ingredient deranges the stomach. After this meal, a long and exhaust- 
ing fast not unfrequently succeeds, from nine or ten in the morning until 
six or seven o'clock in the evening, when dinner is served up ; and the 
half famished beauty sits down to sate a keen appetite with spiced soups, 
fish, roast, and boiled meats, game, tarts, sweetmeats, ices, fruits, etc. 
How must the constitution suffer under the digestion of this melang 
How does the heated complexion bear witness to the combustion within ! 

"The superabundance of aliment which she takes in at this time," 
says a lady of the highest authority, " is not only destructive to beauty, 
but the period of such repletion is full of other dangers. Long fasting- 
wastes the powers of digestion and weakens the spring oi life. In this 



106 NORMAL PROCESS OF MENSTRUATION. 

enfeebled state, at the hour when nature intends you should prepare for 
general repose, you put your stomach and animal spirits to extraordinary 
exertion ; your vital forces are overtasked and overloaded, and thus 
every complaint that distresses and destroys the human frame may be 
engendered. 

" I am fully persuaded that long fasting, late dinners, and the 
repletion then taken into the stomach, with the tight pressure of stiffened 
stays on the most susceptible part of the frame then called into action, 
and the midnight, nay, morning hours of lingering pleasure, are positive 
causes of disease ; and delicate proportions give place either to miserable 
leanness or shapeless fat ; the once fair skin assumes a pallid rigidity, or 
a bloated redness which the vain possessor would still regard as the roses 
of health. To repair these ravages, comes the aid of padding to give 
shape where there is none, stays to compress into form the chaos of flesh 
and paints of all hues to rectify the disorder of the complexion. But 
useless are these attempts." 

NERVOUS AND SEXUAL EXCITEMENT. 

We cannot but indorse this logical lady ; we grant her the privilege 
of speaking authoritatively ; to her recital may be added more specifically 
that the unrestrained indulgence, so graphically set forth by her, excites 
the nervous and sexual system and engenders especially maladies of the 
menstrual organs, which are distressing and debilitating in the extreme. 
Every inordinate stimulation is inevitably followed by reaction, which is 
weakness and debility. Vitiated air is another source of the general 
debility of* women, and of derangements of their menstrual functions. 

Indolence and want of exerise stand foremost among the causes of 
uterine and ovarian derangements. Exercise is the harmonizer between 
the supply and the consumption, in other words, between nourishment 
and wear-and-tear. When properly conducted it gives vigor and strength 
to the body and assists all the organs in the performance of their func- 
tions. Deprive woman of sun, air, and exercise, and she becomes ener- 
vated ; the functions of her generative organs languish ; she loses her 
bright tints and colors, general debility follows, and in the general 
breaking down the menstrual organs assume maladies that add to the 
irritation and discomfort of the girl. 

" If a young woman," a physician says, " would be well-shaped and 
well-conditioned, and would escape pains and the doctor, if she would 



NORMAL PROCESS OF MENSTRUATION. 107 

have grace and elasticity of movement, color in her cheeks, and admirable 
proportions in her limbs ; if she wonld have a faultless foot and ankle, 
limbs of swelling proportion, the flesh firm, and the shape such as no 
sculptor could improve " — to which we add : if she would escape the 
thousand and one annoyances, pains and indispositions or of deranged men- 
struation, or of irritable womb and ovaries — " she must avail herself of 
sunshine and use due exercise on foot. Three, four, five, or six miles a 
day is not any too much for a woman in respectable health. Horseback 
riding is too lazy an exercise to do much good." 

Mind and Imagination. The reflex action of the operations of the 
mind on the generative organs is so direct and immediate that over-exer- 
tion of the intellect and the prurient habits of the imagination rank 
pre-eminent among the predisposing causes of uterine and ovarian 
diseases. The ambition of parents to have a girl excel in mental develop- 
ment at an age when nature demands her freedom for physical growth, 
and the establishment of the functions special to her sex, has sacrificed 
many a lovely maiden to an untimely grave. 

VICTIMS OF EXCESSIVE STUDY. 

Girls at school, submissive to strict discipline, restricted in bodily 
exercise by reason (social) of their sex, rendered emulous by competition 
with boys in the higher studies of science or mathematics, become victims 
of overstrained mental powers, of over-excited nervous systems, and 
perish from the withdrawal of too much nervous force. Languor and 
exhaustion overcome them, the functions of the viscera and of the men- 
strual organs especially are impaired, and a life of strength and health is 
changed to one of pain and misery. 

Among the many and illustrious correspondents of Dr. Clark, one 
says : u This baleful result becomes strikingly manifested as the girls 
approach the age of puberty. Under the abnormal conditions of the 
physical system produced by this cause, not only do the more emulous 
and studious girls suffer from the study which they evidently ought to 
intermit, but the ordinary and habitual task-work necessary to keep 
abreast of the studies is far too severe a draught on many constitutions*" 

Another says : " Girls suffer more than boys from attendance at 
school. Were, however, the habits of the two sexes the same in regard 
to out-door play and exercise, there would probably be no difference 
between the power of resistance in one aud the other sex. 




CHAPTER X. 



PROFESSOR ELIAS LOOMIS, of Yale College, in his report, in 
which he speaks so highly of the mental qualities of woman, of 
her wonderful achievements even in the world of science, repre- 
sents that her physical nature suffers under the great strain of 
emulation, and closes in this wise : 

"As we look upon the increasing physical deterioration of our Ameri- 
can girls, and reflect that they are to become the mothers of an unborn 
generation, on which will surely fall an inheritance of defective physical 
organization and consequent mental infirmities, it is time to sound a note 
of alarm, and look at the causes which are undermining the Republic, 
and search for the remedies that should be applied. We are a people 
given to experiment. There is nothing in our politics, economics, or 
religion that must not be put to the ' experimentum, cruets ' (the rigid test). 
This is true of our schools for girls. The cry to our older colleges and 
time-honored universities is, Open your doors, that the fairer part of 
creation may enter and join in the mental tilt and tournament. God 
save the American people from such a misfortune ! " 

Dr. William A. Hammond says : " Puberty being a much more 
complex process in girls than in boys, the former are more liable to 
disease at this time ; and this liability is increased by whatever tends still 
more to exhaust the nervous system, such as mental application and 
anxiety. I have repeatedly seen cases in which the flow of the menses 
had been suddenly stopped by the anxiety induced by the necessity of 
learning a school lesson." 
108 



OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 109 

While we could cite many authorities to prove the baneful effects of 
excessive mental labor in girls, we will only quote from Dr. Clark's work 
on " The Building of a Brain, " a mother's letter upon the sad fate of her 
daughter. The plain and graphic story is simple and full of instruction, 
and warmed as it is by the pathetic throbs of a mother's heart, it conveys 
an irresistible truth that should be heard by every parent : 

"At the age of fifteen Mary was a remarkably fine and healthy girl ; 
she seemed to be safely over the critical period, and, until after that time, 
had never suffered as many girls do at the^commencement of their woman- 
hood. Her thinking powers were quick and vigorous ; and she was the 
pride of her teachers and the joy of her parents. Unlimited mental 
progress was laid out before her, and it seemed that there were to be no 
bounds to her acquirements. 

EFFECTS OF CLOSE APPLICATION. 

1 , She had then finished a good common-school education, at the best 
high school, and had entered an institute for young ladies, of the high- 
est character. The curriculum of study there was comprehensive, and it 
required the closest application of an ambitious scholar to succeed. 

" One hour was allowed for walking and recreation during the day; 
and half of that could be spent, if the pupil desired to do so, in the music 
room. As the months went on, I began to notice that her complexion, 
which had been pure rose-leaf, became almost transparent, and that the 
fresh blood left her cheeks ; still she did not complain, nor lose flesh, but 
said sometimes, that if she could sleep a week, she would enjoy it, and 
that it almost always happened when she was unwell she had the most to 
do, and the longest to stand. 

" Her progress in her studies was wonderful ; and it seems incredible 
to me now that we should have allowed her to devote herself to them so 
entirely. Her musical talents were great, and they were under cultiva- 
tion also ; when she was seventeen she was the first soprano singer in the 
choir of the church to which she belonged. 

" At last I began to be alarmed at the remarkable flow whenever she 
was unwell, and at the frequent recurrence of the periodical function. I 
felt as if something should be done, and consulted our family physician as 
to what could be given her, and how this increased action could be 
stopped or diminished. He prescribed iron as a tonic, but said that we 
should do nothing more; for that l every woman was a law unto herself,' 



110 



OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 



and as long as nothing more serious occurred, she was to be let alone. 
This from a man who had daughters himself, and eminent in the profes- 
sion ! Never a word about rest, never a caution that she could overwork 
herself, and thus bring misery for 
the remainder of her life. 

" She left school, in June of 
that year, with noble honors and 
aching frame ; and after two 
months' vacation and rest, 
which seemed to do her a 
world of good, began in 
September another year of 
unremitting, hard 
study. Loving and 
gratified parents, 
proud and expec- 
tant teachers, look- 
ed upon her as 
capable of accom- 
plishing all that 
had ever been done 
by faithful stud- v 
ents, and of ad- A 
vancing far beyond ||^ 
all who were in the 
graduating class 
with her. Her 
teachers were as 
kind as any could have been. 
I think the fault was in the 
system that requires so many 
hours of study, no matter what the condition of the pupil may be. 

" As an instance : twenty-five questions were given her to be answered. 
vShe was seated at a table, without books, from 10 A. M. till 3 P. M., cease- 
lessly thinking and writing ; and the twenty-five questions in classical 
literature were faultlessly answered, and that, too, at a time when, had I 
known what I know now, she should have been resting on her bed. Her 
father, to whom the paper was shown for approval, wrote on the margin : 




ADVICE AND COUNSEL OF A MOTHER. 



OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 11 j 

1 It seems to me that the task imposed here was a great one indeed ; but 
it has been performed with good success.' 

" I do not for a moment mean to find fault with her teachers ; for 
kinder, more interested ones no pupil ever had ; and the delight that a 
teacher derives from a painstaking and appreciative pupil cannot be under- 
stood by those unused to teaching. While the dear child was meeting our 
utmost requirements as a scholar, the foundation of her life was being 
sapped away. 

" A little more than two weeks before the June commencement, she 
was taken with fearful sickness and severe chills, just after one of the 
hemorrhages which came every three weeks regularly. [Menstrual, of 
course.] Our doctor was called ; the first thing she said to him was, 
i Doctor, I must not be sick now. I cannot afford the time. I must be 
well for commencement.' For four days she suffered very much, but 
quinine and all sorts of tonics brought her up ; and the two weeks that 
should have been taken to get well in were spent in study, study, study. 
All the examinations were passed successfully, even brilliantly ; and she 
was graduated with all the honors of the institution. 

THE PRIDE OF THE FAMILY. 

a Oh how proud we were of her ! and when she came home, frail and 
weak as a wilted flower, we said that she should have a long rest, and 
every comfort that we could give her. All summer she remained in the 
highlands of the Hudson ; yet, when autumn came, she was not as well 
as we thought she ought to be, though very much improved with regard 
to the monthly turns, they recurring at right times now. 

" In September she commenced studying again ; her French and 
music were continued, so that she might become still more accomplished 
in those branches ; and lectures on rhetoric and moral philosophy were 
attended also. 

" The habit of studying was so strong upon her that she could not 
give it up. Now came swelling of the joints and fingers, and the old 
trouble, all of which she would have kept to herself if she could have done 
so; but I was so anxious about her that I ascertained her condition, went 
to the doctor again, and begged him to tell me what to do that would stop 
the weakening periodical disturbance, as I was persuaded that was the 
cause of her trouble. He said she had inflammatory rheumatism, and 
prescribed soda. 



112 OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 

" But I was not to do anything for the other matter, and, against my 
own convictions, I let things take their course. Oh, if he had said, ' Take 
her home, and stop her studying.' Armed with such authority, I would 
have done it ; and how do we know but she might have been with us now, 
if I had done so ? But she worked on until tha 25th of December. Then 
she came home, and said decidedly she would study no more till she was 
well. 

" We were rejoiced at her decision; for although we were anxious 
that her education should be complete and thorough, we had felt for a 
long time that her health was becoming impaired. Still we were sure she 
had a good constitution, and that would carry her through. She did not 
grow thin, but stout and pale ; and such a transparent palor that, now I 
think of it, I wonder all who looked at her did not see that her blood was 
turning to water. Her sweet and lovely soul was so uncomplaining, and 
her smile always so bright, that we never for a moment thought she could 
fade and die. 

LAST STAGES OF DISEASE. 

" She brightened up somewhat for the next month, but still did not 
get well. About the last of January her limbs swelled so much that, in 
haste, I rushed to the doctor. Then he said her kidneys were conjested, 
and that Bright's fatal disease was her malady. All that despairing love 
could do was done now. In five short weeks we laid her in Greenw T ood. 
Whatever was the form of disease from which she suffered, I am convinced 
that what she did have was brought on by excessive study, when she 
should have rested, and that it was fixed at the time when she got the 
severe chills. 

" She was by no means a frail girl when she entered the institute. 
She was tall, finely formed, with a full, broad chest, and musical organs 
of great compass. Her bust was not flat, neither was it as full as might 
have been. Her features were not too large. She had brown eyes, brown 
hair, a very sweet and pleasing face. With every indication at first of 
strength and good constitution, she fell at last a victim to want of sense 
in parents, and teachers, and (shall I say?) physicians, too." 

We make no apology for transferring here this letter in full. Besides 
sympathizing with this broken-hearted woman, which would be sufficient 
reason for us to send abroad every word of her lament, we feel that a 
more comprehensive, true, and significant illustration of the carelessness 




COPYRIGHT, 1904, i;v THE lONNKi ,B CO. 

BEAUTY AND STRENGTH EXERCISE. 

PERFORMED WITHOUT THE AID OF TECHNICAL APPARATUS, DESIGNED 10 FURTHEB 

THE PROPORTIONATE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY, RENDER THE JOINTS KOBE 11 BXI- 

BLE IN ALL DIRECTIONS, GIVE THE PLEASING AND GRACEFUL APPEARANCE 

OF FIRMNESS, STEADINESS, AND DEXTERITY IN THE POSITION AND 

IN THE USE OF THE LIMBS, AND SECURE PHYSICAL BEAUTY, 

MUSCULAR STRENGTH AND ROBUST HEALTH. 




COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY THE TONNELE CO. 



THE LEG AND FOOT EXERCISE. 

AT FIRST, THE STUDENT WILL FIND IT DIFFICULT TO KEEP HER BALANCE, 

WHILE EXECUTING THIS MOVEMENT ; BUT MUST LEARN TO DO SO 

WITHOUT LEANING UPON ANYTHING. ENDEAVOR TO KEEP 

one's BALANCE AND THE UPRIGHT POSITION OF THE 

BODY, CALLS INTO ACTION MANY MUSCLES, AND 

IS ONE OF THE AIMS OF THE EXERCISE. 




GYMNASTICS WITH HOME APPARATUS. 

MAKES THE LIMBS PLUMP, THE CHEST FULL, THE LUNG 
AND THE DIGESTION GOOD, 



STRONG, 




DEVELOPING A GOOD FIGURE. . 

EXERCISE FOR INCREASING MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT AND EXPANDING 

THE LUNGS, A FASCINATING EXERCISE FOR WOMEN, WHO FIND IT A 

RELIEF AND RELAXATION FROM THE DAY'S TOIL AND ANXIETY. 




EXERCISE WITH INDIAN CLUBS. 

INDIAN CLUBS ARE DESERVEDLY HELD IN THE HIGHEST ESTEEM BY A LI 

GYMNASTS, AFFORDING ONE OF THE VERY BEST AND MOST EXTENDED 

SERIES OF EXERCISES FOR DEVELOPING THE KUSCULAB 

ROWER OF THE WHOLE BODY. 




THE WAND EXERCISE. 

WANDS FURNISH AN EXTENDED COURSE OF BEAUTIFUL AND PECULIARLY 
EFFECTIVE EXERCISES; THEY MAY BE REGARDED AS ALMOST IN- 
DISPENSABLE IN THE FORMATION OF A SYSTEM OF PHYSICAL 
TRAINING. THEY CALL INTO PLAY, SEPARATELY, AND 
IN COMBINATION, ALL THE MUSCLES AND JOINTS. 




ARM EXERCISE WITH DUMB-BELLS 

EXERTS AN IMPORTANT ENFLUENCE UPON THE CHEST AND VITAL ORGAN! 
AND SHOULD BE USED WITH CAUTION, ESPECIALLY BY DHOSE 
WHO A R E W E A K A XI > II A V B NARROW c H BSTS, 




CHEST AND ELBOW EXERCISE. 

DUMB-BELLS ARE SUPERIOR, AS A MEANS OF PHYSICAL CULTURE, TO ANY 

ARTICLE OF GYMNASTIC APPARATUS, AFFORDING THE MOST PLEASING, 

VARIED, AND CONCENTRATED OF ALL ATHETIC EXERCISES. 



OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 



113 



in educating girls could not be given by the most experienced and 
observant hygienist. 

Body and mind being parts of a grand whole, reflecting and depend- 
ing upon each other, to neglect one is to injure the other simultaneously ; 
exceptions form nova- 
lid argument against 
the requirements of this 
general law. Infringe 
it, and the penalty 
sooner or later must be 
paid. A proper equili- 
brium should be main- 
tained by exercising 
the body and the mind, 
alternately with periods 
of rest and nourish- 
ment, necessary to the 
recovery of vitality lost 
in the exercise of men- 
tal or physical attri- 
butes. 

Exposure to wet, heat 
or cold. Getting wet 
at the times when the 
periods are about to ap- 
pear, or are actually 
on, is probably more of 
an immediate than a 
remote cause of men- 
strual derangement. 

Impedimenta. All 
kinds of mechanical 
pressure, as in the ap- 
pliance of tight cloth- 
ing, is another predisposing cause, affecting the circulation and the 
natural development of the muscular system. 

Uncleanliness. " Cleanliness is next to godliness." What a 
remarkable adage ! Why is cleanliness considered so excellent as to be 
8 




HEALTH AND BEAUTY IN' THE PATHLESS WOODS. 



114 OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 

reckoned next to virtue ? Is it because uncleanliness is repulsive to the 
human sense ? That would be the negative reason. The proposition is, 
that cleanliness, mental, as well as physical, is purity — purity of the 
mind, purity of the body. 

Impurities of the skin engender disease. The skin is an organ of 
absorption and secretion : it absorbs from the surrounding atmosphere 
elements of vitality ; it secretes effete fluids of the body. It is the safety- 
valve during excesses of temperature ; it contracts when exposed to a 
very cold atmosphere, preventing the blood of the capillaries from becom- 
ing suddenly chilled, and secretes fluid when exposed to a high tempera- 
ture, inducing evaporation and cooling, thus preventing congestion. 

Uncleanliness of this organ is a mechanical obstruction to its natural 
function, the bad effect of which reflects upon the whole system. It 
should be kept clean and protected from the excesses of temperature. 
When chilled suddenly it has caused dangerous congestions, checked or 
stopped the flow of the menses ; and when it is kept for a long time in an 
unclean state, or exposed to sudden heat or cold, it becomes a source of 
chronic ailments of the chest and of the menstrual organs. 

SOURCES OP HEALTH AND DISEASE. 

Occupation is always a source of health, while its negative, Idleness, 
is generally a source of disease. Among the class in which the mental 
faculties are excited to premature activity, and the body is allowed to 
remain inactive, an unwonted irritability of the nervous system is the 
consequence. The harmonious, self-possessed cheerfulness of the woman 
of physical labor compares favorably with the faulty temper, fret- 
fulness and weariness of the girl of indolence. The sleeplessness, 
headache, nausea, loss of appetite, abdominal pains, backache, and 
general good-for-nothingness of the latter, is seldom found in the former. 

The life of the idler is emotional ; the life of the worker is practical. 
The ailings of the nervous, indolent girl are soothed only by romantic 
literature, which excites the senses that reflect upon her organs of gen- 
eration ; the active girl overcomes the senses by a healthy exercise of 
the physical, and finds vigor in peaceful rest. 

The occupations calculated to injure girls are such as demand an 
unwonted strain upon the abdominal muscles, e. g., standing too long — 
as shop girls at a counter — long practice at the sewing-machine, or sitting 
too long bent over a desk. Girls at school, keeping a sitting posture for 



OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 115 

six hours, wearing stays, which, on account of their stiffness, must press 
the abdomen inwardly whenever the body is bent forward upon itself, are 
liable to displacements of the womb from undue pressure. And even if 
the womb is not displaced the circulation of the abdomen is interfered 
with, which is then manifested in the costiveness of the intestines, and in 
painful menstruation from irritability of the ovaries. 

When any of the foregoing Remote or predisposing causes exist, 
menstrual derangement is easily brought about, even by a slight exciting 
cause or immediate occasion. 

Exposure to a sudden change from heat to cold, getting the feet or 
the body wet while dressed, allowing the wet clothes to evaporate and dry 
while on the person, will abstract so much heat from the body as to cause 
a shock to the system that may induce immediate suppression of the 
menses with all its evil consequences. And when this is repeated, 
inflammation of the ovaries and uterus will follow, capable of putting life 
in immediate peril, or of exposing to such derangements of the menstrual 
organs as will consign a girl to months and years of suffering. 

EXCITEMENT OF THE PASSIONS. 

Emotions. A sudden mental excitement from joy, sorrow, or fright 
often as suddenly checks the flow, producing a dangerous retention. 
u t The menstrual organs are especially susceptible to the influence of 
excitement of the passions, and their disorders are often er traceble to this 
source than to any other." The pleasures of society, inebriating to the 
young girl; her entrance to the theatre of love and passion, the fascina- 
tion of erotic literature, dramas, or scenes, are often the beginning of a 
series of evils that sap her mind and destroy her body. Woman, by 
nature, more emotional than man, aggravating her condition by the effort 
to conceal what she fears may endanger her dignity, is rendered more 
susceptible to the evil consequences that result from the excitability of 
the senses. 

The mother has evidently a serious duty to perforin here. She 
should watch her daughter's associates; shield her from luxury and 
fashion ; withdraw from her all literature of doubtful morality ; restrain 
her from all things that fever the imagination, from intemperate wishes, 
from the enchantment of the senses. Unremitting vigilance, confidence 
and love should be her weapons. Purity of thought, tranquillity of h< 
and mind, will save her daughter from the gulf of errors to which she 



116 OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 

unconsciously tends, and where she will find only misery for her soul 
and destruction for her body. 

At a certain period of life, the purest heart and the mind most chaste 
are susceptible to the passion of love. With melancholic, dreamy, indo- 
lent natures, it is a fiery ordeal. Civilization has elevated the passion of 
the savage into a sentiment of affection in the refined. An ardent love, 
even in the latter, can take possession of the soul, agitate and dominate 
it. The younger and purer the heart, the stronger the affection which 
may be kindled into a passion by the enervating atmosphere of ball-rooms, 
theaters, toilets and perfumes that fascinate the senses. 

VAIN AND HARMFUL IMAGININGS. 

Socrates said : " The wind nourishes the fire ; habit and oppor- 
tunity inflame love." An inordinate love, engaging wholly the imagina- 
tion, is fraught with danger to the celibate ; it engenders disorders that 
affect the entire human economy ; the excitation of the senses induces 
feverishness, restlessness, anxiety, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, melan- 
choly ; and nervous persons, tender and innocent girls, building a world 
of their own imagination, rising above the vulgar earth into a sentimental 
sphere, where daily avocations and animal necessities are too coarse to be 
observed, waste in flesh and droop in spirit, until maladies of a serious 
nature overtake them ; hysteria, melancholy, chlorosis, neuralgias, etc. 
The organs of menstruation, in sympathy with the general abnormal con- 
dition of the system, suffer ; and irritation, inflammation of the womb, 
leucorrhcea, may easily be the results. 

Unrequited love, or strenuous opposition, is even more dangerous. It 
is an unequal fight ; it is a struggle of the imagination against fate ; it is 
a hopeless one. The young girl lives in the secret chamber of her fanciful 
architecture alone ; she is sad and dreamy. The roses soon leave her 
cheeks, she becomes pale and hollow-eyed, morbidly sensitive ; sighs come 
deep from her very heart, and tears flow easily ; general weakness finally 
confines her to her couch ; nothing can distract her mind now ; nothing 
attracts her from solitude ; she is alone among a thousand people ; the 
roundness of her limbs deserts her ; an irritating cough makes its appear- 
ance, fever (hectic) follows, and the grave in the dim distance opens its 
doors for her to enter. 

Parents often fail in the manner of training girls whose attachments 
they disapprove. Fathers are too often harsh, and mothers whine over an 



OUR AMERICAN GIRLS. 117 

imaginary ingratitude of trie girl ; how could she love anyone but her 
father and mother who have reared her, been so indulgent to her ? etc. It 
is wonderful how a full stomach forgets the keen sensation of hunger ! 
Although the girl is already, by the very affection of which they complain, 
disabled from thinking and judging rightly of the fitness of things, or of 
considering coolly and philosophically while passion is burning, she is 
expected to act with reason and circumspection. 

Father and mother might better look back and see in the mirror of 
their own life the very reflection of their daughter's condition. Sternness 
and bitter reproaches are out of place now, and certainly unavailing, as 
has been proved a thousand times. Travelling, change of scene, sym- 
pathy, love and good companionship, will do more towards calming the 
troubled spirit, and cooling the feverish excitement, than all the argu- 
ments or modes of coercion possible. 

VALUE OF OCCUPATION. 

The all-powerful guard against dangerous emotions, or reveries, is 
habitual occupation. Habitual is written understandingly, for transient 
occupation is not calculated to engage the mind; but, when habitual, it 
becomes a necessity, on account of which it is performed, even though the 
mind is preoccupied by thoughts foreign to the act. It is this habitual 
occupation that so often enables man to withstand emotions that disap- 
pointments and misfortunes induce ; the dignity of labor, the interest in 
his profession or trade, the healthful effort to succeed, and pride in con- 
quering adversity, make him powerful in the struggle for existence. 

If a woman is so devoted to the duties of her vocation as to render 
her life a necessity to others, or, to such pursuits as engage her intellect 
in the accomplishment of something worthy of herself and of the respect 
of her fellow-creatures, in either case, allegiance to her higher nature is 
evinced by self-forgetfulness and loving care for others in the one, and 
manifestations of a healthy active brain in the other, and she is not the 
victim of passion or sentimentality. 

Let every girl have an habitual occupation with which she is identified 
for success or failure, and the problem of life will become to her a fact of 
practical value, instead of a sentimental illusion. Let her be one of the 
helping hands of the household ; let her be identified with all the interests 
and struggles of her parents ; let her employment be steady and 
gressive, and she will not seek rest or solace from her "ennui" in the 



118 OUR AMERICAN GIRLS- 

romances of the day, in the admiration of silly youths, nor in the vanity 
of ever-changing fashion. Conscious of her usefulness, she will respect 
hercelf, which is to have the strongest bulwark against the insidious 
attacks of imaginary evils, or excessive and unhappy emotions. 

An injury, a fall, a shot, a railroad accident not in any way fatal, will 
cause a shock to the nervous system that may induce a sudden suppression 
of the menses. Acute diseases, as fever, hemorrhoidal hemorrhage, inflam- 
mation of the bowels, dysentery, pneumonia, pleurisy, etc., often induce a 
suppression, not only during the acuteness of the disease, but even until 
the general system has totally recovered from the debilitating influence. 
Change of climate, particularly from a high to a low temperature, and 
brought about in a quick manner ; travelling — crossing high mountains, 
and even crossing the sea— has induced suppression of menstruation. 
There is no doubt that the cause is found in the quick succession of change 
in the temperature or other conditions of the atmosphere. 

It has also happened that women who lived in level districts and 
menstruated regularly were subject to suppression of menses while 
residing on high mountains or at sea ; and that the return did not occur 
even for several months after change of locality. Novelty of situation, 
change of exercise, as going to live in a house having many steps to 
ascend and descend, or even so slight a thing as changing from carpeted 
steps to marble ones, has sometimes caused temporary suspensions. 

The natural suspension of menstruation, the critical period that 
occurs at a certain time of life (at about the age of forty-five) is the cessa- 
tion of reproduction, commonly called " change of life." It is a natural 
process, and should be unattended by discomfort or illness ; but, alas I 
the hygienic rules so long disobeyed bring their result even at this stage, 
consequently, the process of cessation is hardly ever undergone without 
entailing upon woman disease and suffering. 

Another natural suppression is pregnancy, which the reader will 
find treated in its proper place. 




HIS is considered the most interesting 
and important part of a work of this 
character, particularly of late years, 
when so many investigations have been 
carried on by some of the brightest lights that 
adorn the medical profession. The reader may, 
perhaps, readily anticipate the views of the 
authors of this volume from what has been advanced in the preceding 
pages. The work, however, would be imperfect without a fair presenta- 
tion and comparison of the facts and opinions of former writers with 
the latest observations made upon this subject. Hence they will be 
succinctly stated and analyzed according to their relative importance. 

The process of generation is that by which the young of living 
organized bodies are produced and the species continued. Some animals 
propagate by a division of their bodies into pieces, each one becoming 
endowed with an independent existence similar to the parent. Others 
propagate by buds upon the parent stem, which buds, when they arrive 
at maturity, separate and retain an individual existence. Another class 
of animals throw off from their bodies a portion of organized matter 
which, after undergoing various processes of development, acquires all 
the peculiarities of the parent. 

In the fourth and last class, the process is more complex than in 
either of the others. In this last division, the union ot the male and 
female sexes is necessary for procreation. The reproductive functions 
require more complicated processes in the higher than in the lower order 

no 



120 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

of animals, in order to the perpetuation of the different species through 
an nndeviating succession of generations. 

While speaking of the process of generation in man, it will be appro- 
priate to present some interesting facts respecting reproduction in some 
of the series of the animal kingdom inferior to the genus homo, or man. 
The reader will understand that the egg furnished by the female is per- 
fectly barren so far as regards progressive development, unless it receives 
some influence from the product of the male generative organs. This is 
equally the fact in regard to the product of the male. To render either 
fruitful, there must be a union of the two several products of the male 
and female. 

The scientific man, as well as the more ignorant, in all ages, have 
contempated with wonder and admiration the phenomena by which the 
young of animals are brought into existence. The gradual construction 
of the frame-work of the animal body — the changes necessary for the 
formation of the brains and nerves, by which man thinks and feels — the 
muscles that induce locomotion — the process of nutrition, by which the 
various organs are formed and nourished — all proceeding from the com- 
paratively simple structure of the egg — are well calculated to inspire 
wonder and admiration of the works of Nature, and lead man to indulge 
in many absurd and unwarranted hypotheses and speculations, as to the 
origin and perpetuation of the various animal species. 

VITAL POWER DERIVED FROM THE PARENT. 

The ascertained fact that the egg possesses an inherent vital power 
in itself, derived from the parent, and the mode of its being called into 
action by external physical agents — such as heat, moisture, oxygen and 
light — the influence exerted on it by being brought into contact with the 
male sperm — the preservation of the distinct species from generation to 
generation in undeviating succession — the transmission of hereditary 
weakness and constitutional peculiarities of form, resemblance and mental 
traits — all have a tendency to throw an air of mystery over the functions 
of reproduction. 

There is one fact that must be borne in mind, which is, that all the 
scientific and learned can do, is to investigate matter and observe the 
laws which control and change its elements. The same elements that 
now exist, and the same forces, have existed from all eternity. It is the 
operations of these forces upon these elements, in the formation of new 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. J 21 

compounds, that we are to study, and this is all that man can do in this 
life. This investigation constitutes science, and beyond the light of such 
knowledge no man can safely venture. 

Hence it is apparent, all that is necessary for the generation of a new 
being is matter endowed with a vital force. This force calls to its assist- 
ance other physical agents in unfolding organic forms. Such agents are 
heat, light, moisture, and oxygen. It was from the action of the vital 
force upon matter, with, the assistance of the agents named that the first 
plant or first animal was formed. 

An &gg healthily developed, when brought in contact with the male 
principle, has this vital power awakened in it, and if it can then draw 
to itself the aid of the several agents already named, will gradually develop 
a human being, endowed with all the peculiarities of its parent, simply 
because the unfolding or vital principle in the ^gg and male sperm, is a 
part and parcel of the parental stamina. 

THE VITAL PRINCIPLE IN BIRTH. 

It is an established law of Nature, that "Like begets like." Should 
there be any interference with such unfolding or vital force there will be 
an imperfect development, denominated malformation. This vital prin- 
ciple is the constitution of the new being, and has imbedded in it, or united 
with it, all the peculiarities or idiosyncracies, and all the hereditary 
weaknesses and ailments of its parents. Females should remember this 
immutable law, before selecting a partner for life, if they would not entail 
upon posterity constitutional defects that can never be remedied. 

It is somewhat amusing to contemplate the various theories that have 
been advanced in regard to generation, in various ages of the world. 

Drelincourt, a distinguished author of the last century, names no less 
than two hundred and sixty-two groundless hypotheses of generation, 
from the writings of his predecessors. Blumenbacli justly remarks that 
nothing is more certain than that Drelincourt's theory formed the two 
hundred and sixty-third. 

As it would be an endless and fruitless task to wade through all such 
theories, a few of the more plausible and remarkable ones may be briefly 
presented in the present place. 

One of the oldest theories was that of the Ovists. Those philosophers 
maintained that the female afforded all the material necessary for the 
development of the offspring — the male doing nothing more than awak- 



122 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

ening this dormant principle in the female. This was the celebrated 
Pythagorean theory. It was also Aristotle's, somewhat modified. Some 
of the old authors who entertained this theory, supposed that the embryo 
was formed from the menstrual fluid which descended from the brain 
during sexual union. 

Another theory which had many advocates was that of the Sper- 
matists. They supposed that it was the male semen alone which furnished 
all the vitality that was essential for the new being — the female or gans 
simply furnishing a fit place or matrix, together with the 
materials necessary for its nourishment and unfoldment. 
This was Galen's favorite theory. 

After the discovery of spermatozoa in the male semen, 
those that had supported Galen's hypothesis, now main- 
tained that the spermatozoa were minature representa- 
tions of men, and called them homunculi — some even 
going so far as to assert that they discovered in them 
the body, limbs, form of face and expression of counten- 
ance of a full-grown human being. They also enter- 
tained the idea that these were male and female homunculi 
the spermatozoa. — fa^ jf a f ema i e homunculum was deposited a human 
female was developed, and the same of the male. 

Reproductive Function in Man. The period of life at which the 
human being is capable of reproduction is termed puberty. At this period 
important changes are observed in the structure and functions of the 
system. These changes are more marked in the female than in the male, 
which may be attributed to the female affording nourishment for the 
children during the whole of intra-uterine life, while the male furnishes 
only the material for fecundation. 

In infancy and youth the two sexes do not differ materially in their 
general physical conformations nor in their mental characteristics. At 
the period of puberty, however, there is observed a marked antagonism 
both of the intellectual and anitomical developments. The broad chest 
and wide shoulders of the male, and the large pelvis and abdomen of the 
female constitute the chief peculiarities of difference between the male 
and female sexes. 

The body of the female is smaller, in weight about one-fourth less 
than that of the male. Her frame is more tapering, the muscles less prom- 
inent, the limbs are round and symmetrically proportioned, the bones 




WONDERS OF GENERATION. 



VIZ 



small, the skin delicate and fine, the voice soft and feminine, while there 
is that chaste and reserved modesty of demeaner, which is so irresistibly 
captivating to the other sex. In the male there is the low, rongh voice, 
owing to the large size of the larynx and vocal cords ; hair appears on the 
skin and all over the body and limbs, indicating great physical powers and 
activity, enabling him to en- 
dure much fatigue and excel in 
deeds of strength and daring. 

In the male, at puberty, 
there is also an enlargement 
of all the generative organs, 
which is accompanied with 
sexual feelings and the secre- 
tion of semen by the testicles, 
prostrate glands and vesicula 
seminalis, with occasionally a 
spontaneous emission occur- 
ring at night, generally during 
dreaming. 

In the female there is 
likewise an enlargement of 
the breast and genital organs, 
while there is a peculiar dis- 
charge from the latter, termed 
the " menstrual flow." It is 
not out of place here to men- 
tion that there is no discharge 
from females during sexual 
congress, as many suppose, 
equivalent to that emitted from 
the male during such con- 
junction of the sexes. There 
is, however, a secretion from the glands of the vagina which serves to 
lubricate the parts during coition and increases sexual pleasure. The 
excitement attendant upon coition is paroxysmal in both male and female, 
the seminal discharge taking place only from the former at the height of 
such paroxysm. 

The period during which the genital functions are exercised is vari- 




MALE AND FEMALE FORMS CONTRASTED. 



124 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

able in both sexes. In the female the period is usually about thirty 
years — from puberty at fifteen years to the " chauge of life " at forty-five 
years. In the males it is somewhat longer — generally from forty-five to 
fifty years, or from the fifteenth year of. age to the sixtieth or seventieth 
year. There are many instances where the virile powers of the male 
have been retained even to a much more lengthened period — to the eighti- 
eth, ninetieth or one hundredth year. In the celebrated case of " Old 
Parr," it continued unimpaired until he reached the age of one hundred 
and thirty years of age ; Masinissa, king of Numidia, after he was eighty- 
six years years old, begat Methynate ; Wadalas, king of Poland, had two 
children after his ninetieth year. The Hon. Jeremiah Smith, of New 
Hampshire, became the father of a child when he was eighty. 

INFLUENCE OF THE VARIOUS TEMPERAMENTS. 

The author is acquainted with a gentleman who married for the first 
time when he was seventy-five and had two sons by a young wife. There 
are some cases on record of females menstruating the second time and 
bearing children at seventy or eighty years of age. I am cognizant of 
the case of a lady of Philadelphia who commenced menstruating at nearly 
eighty years of age, and conceived. 

In all animals where the distinction of sex exists, there are instinct- 
ive feelings experienced to a greater or less extent. This feeling depends 
upon the temperament of the body and the condition of the mind. In 
animals the impulse is concomitant more upon a peculiar state of the 
genital organs, which is manifested at a particular season of the year, 
known as the " breeding " or " rutting " period. In the female at this 
time a peculiar secretion takes place in the genital organs, the odor of 
which excites the sexual functions of the male. 

In the human species a similar function exists, but which is capable 
of being placed under intellectual and moral control. When not so 
governed, this passion is productive of the most revolting obscenity and 
prostitution. Hence the necessity of legislative enactments to restrain 
licentiousness and concubinage. 

The sexual passion is modified very much in some temperaments. 
For instance, the sanguine, being more voluptuous, love amorous pre. 
ludes. The bilious are under an erotic fury, which is as great as it is 
quickly exhausted. The melancholic burn with a secret and more con- 
stant flame, while the phlegmatic are cold and insensible. 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 125 

The temperaments should be more understood than they are by those 
selecting a partner for life. That happiness which is so desirable in 
wedlock is seldom found where the temperaments, sentiments and sexual 
feelings of the husband and wife are of opposite or antagonistic character. 
Among the lower classes this incompatibility of impulses, or " unequal 
yoking," as St. Paul expresses it, often leads to adultery, separation and 
other domestic discomforts and miseries. 

The brain appears to exert considerable influence over the sexual 
organs. The sexual feelings are more or less under the control of the 
mental faculties, in the same manner that the action of the heart, digest- 
ive process, respiration, secretion, and in fact all the functions of the body, 
are subject to the operations of the intellectual apparatus. It is also a 
fact that the genital organs excite mental desires. 

PROMINENCE OF THE LOWER BRAIN. 

Phrenologists maintain that the cerebellum (or lower brain, back of 
the head) presides over the sexual feelings, or rather that such impulses 
belong to that organ, and that it is from thence all sexual desires emanate. 
It is found that those who have the back of the head and neck large, 
have the sexual passions more strongly developed than is the case in 
those persons where such prominence does not exist. 

The same fact has been observed in animals ; while it has been 
proven by observation that diseases of the cerebellum, such as inflamma- 
tion and injuries from gunshot and other wounds, impair or destroy sexual 
desires. Also it is known that if the cerebellum be stimulated in 
any manner, the sexual desires are increased in accordance with such 
stimulation. 

Carpenter mentions several instances of this kind. One of these 
cases was that of a man whose sexual proclivities had always been 
strongly manifested through life, although they were entirely under the 
control of the will, until about three months previous to his death, when 
such erotic impulses increased in a most extraordinary degree. A post- 
mortem examination after death revealed a tumor on the back of the 
head. The other case was that of a young officer, who, on the eve ot 
marriage, received a blow on the occiput by falling from a horse. He 
became impotent, without any other derangement of his bodily or mental 
powers. In distress upon this discovery of his imperfection he committed 
suicide on the morning fixed for his wedding. 



126 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

There are many other instances on record of this character, going to 
substantiate the phrenological theory that the cerebellum (or lower brain) 
is the seat of the amorous or voluptuous passions. 

Fecundation. — It has been already stated, that impregnation is 
accomplished by the union of the male spermatozoa and the ovum of the 
female, during the passage of the latter through these tubes toward the 
uterus while the change which takes place in the ovum after the union 
occurs, has also been explained. If the spermatozoa do not come in 
contact with the ova, these changes do not take place, but the eggs pass 
out into the uterus and are lost. It has also been stated that menstruation is 
a process preparatory to impregnation. In other words, that during the 
menstrual phenomenon an ovum is ripened and expelled from the ovary ; 
that it is then taken up by the fimbriated extremities of the tube, drawn 
into its channel and forced (by a series of contractions or certain peristal- 
tic action, with the assistance of the ciliary lining of the tube,) toward 
the uterus, which is the receptacle for the further development of the egg 
or embryo. 

OFFICE OF THE UTERUS. 

As has been remarked, the office of the uterus is to receive the seminal 
fluid and conduct it into the Fallopian tubes. The neck of the uterus 
does not, as many suppose, receive the male semen, when it is first ejected 
from the male intromittent instrument ; but it is thrown into a pouch-like 
receptacle at the upper portion of the vagina, surrounding the mouth of 
the womb and formed by dilation of that organ. The uterus is suspended 
in the axis of the pelvis, and in such a position to the vagina that the 
mouth of the womb is maintained in the very centre of this pouch, and 
thus affording a facility for the semen to pass into the neck of the uterus. 

Blundell describes a peculiar movement which he observed in the 
vagina of the rabbit, that very clearly explains the manner of the intro- 
duction of the semen into the uterus. " This canal " (the vagina, says 
he) " during the heat is never at rest. It shortens — it lengthens — it 
changes continually in its circular dimensions, and when irritated 
especially will sometimes contract to one-third of its quiescent diameter. 
In addition to this action the vagina performs another," which " consists 
in the falling down, as it were, of that part of the vagina which lies in the 
vicinity of the womb ; so that it every now and then lays itself as flatly 
over its orifice, as we should apply the hand over the mouth in an endeavor 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 127 

to stop it. How well adapted the whole of this curious movement is for 
the introduction of the semen at the opening, it is needless to explain." 

The cervical canal is traversed by a large number of furrows, which 
assist in conducting the semen into the body of the uterus. It is not 
likely that the ejaculatory act of the male is sufficient to throw the semen 
beyond the pouch and against the os or head of the womb, inasmuch as 
the close approximation of the walls of the cervix would prevent it passing 
further. It is not certainly known in what way the spermatozoa are 
assisted in their passage through the womb into the Fallopian tubes. It 
is, however, supposed that the ciliae which line the cervix or neck of the 
womb, in conjunction with the approximation of the walls of the uterus, 
afford the requisite facility for such purpose. The close approximation of 
the walls of the uterus would naturally facilitate the rise of the semen, 
the same as water placed between two pieces of glass will rise so as to 
cover the internal surface of both. 

PRINCIPAL POWER OP PROPULSION. 

The movement of the spermatozoa is most likely the principal power 
that is used for their propulsion upward. Indeed, it would appear that it 
is only by such movements that they can penetrate and pass up the 
Fallopian tubes toward the ovaries, inasmuch as the cilia that line the 
cavity of these tubes would rather retard than promote their ascension, 
for the simple reason that their (the cilia's) wave-like motion is in the 
reverse direction, or toward the womb from the fimbriated extremities of 
the tubes. There is further proof that the movement of the spermatozoa 
is the principal agent in their ascension, in the fact of their possessing 
sufficient power to pass into the egg or ovum on coming in contact with it. 

The office or function of the testicles is to secrete the male sperm, a 
substance that appears to the naked eye like ordinary mucus devoid of 
life. If the microscope, however, be applied to a small quantity of this 
secretion, taken from a healthy male who has arrived at puberty, it will 
be found alive with minute, thread-like, bodies. So numerous are these 
that, at first sight, the semi-liquid mass seems to be almost entirely made 
up of them. The are called the seminal animalcules, or spermatozoa. 
There are also found in this liquor seminis ) minute round corpuscles 
called seminal cells. 

Spermatozoa, in man, as well as in animals, and some ot the higher 
order of plants, have their origin in cells, which are denominated seminal 



128 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

cells or spermatophori. These cells are filled with granular matter, each 
granule capable of being developed into a spermatozoon. These germ 
cells are developed in the tube composing the testicles. It is within the 
tubes these cells burst, when the thread-like bodies escape, and take on 
those peculiar motions which have given rise to the opinion that they are 
distinct animalcules. Some physiologists do not regard them as posses- 
sing distinct animal characteristics any more than is attached to the cilia 
that line the cells of the neck of the uterus and Fallopian tubes. Hence 
they have been called cell-germs, furnished with peculiar moving power. 
The form of development in animals is somewhat different, and the 
motion will correspond with the development. Those with tail-like 
appendages resemble the motion of an eel in water. Those with the 
spiral development have the spiral motion. From observation it has been 
ascertained that spermatozoa will retain their moving powers twenty- 
four or thirty hours after they enter the uterus and Fallopian tubes. 

COMPARISON OF THE VIGOROUS WITH THE WEAK. 

In the young and vigorous, the spermatozoa are abundant and active. 
In debilitated persons, those that have weals constitutions and where the 
vital forces are depressed, the spermatozoa will not only be found very 
scanty but exceedingly feeble. Such scantiness and feebleness will cor- 
respond with the vital energy or debility of the individual in whom they 
are developed. In consumptives, and those who have broken down their 
constitution by over sexual indulgence and onanism, the action of the 
spermatoza is slow and their development imperfect. In aged persons 
they disappear, while the testicles, like the ovaries of aged females, cease 
to perform the functions allotted to them in the prime and vigor of life. 

The natural secretion of the vagina and uterus of the female is favor- 
able for the maintenance of spermatozoa. When these become changed 
to acid secretions, they act as poisons and quickly destroy the sperma. 
tozos. Hence, one of the causes of sterility in the female is owing to 
the change in the secretions of the os cervix uteri and vagina. 

The spermatozoa in man are exceedingly small — being about y 5 o of 
an inch in length, and y 6 oo of an inch in diameter. The seminal animal- 
culse are said to be no larger in the whale than in the mouse. They are 
much larger in insects, mollusca, and others of the lower animals than 
in man. They are considerably larger in the mouse than in the horse, 
and in the snail fifty-four times larger than in the dog. 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 129 

The office of the spermatozoa, as before stated, is to impart new life 
to the female ovum. This takes place in the Fallopian tubes during the 
passage of the ovum toward the uterus. The quantity of semen elimi- 
nated at one coitus is from one to three drachms, of which, perhaps, only 
about one-hundredth part consists of spermatozoa. 

It is generally conceded that but two or three drops of semen proper, 
or spermatozoa, are ejected from the testicles at one conjunction of the 
sexes. The balance is an albuminous fluid secreted by the vesicula semi- 
nalis and prostate gland, which secretions are thrown off at the same time 
as that from the testicles. The use of this superabundant fluid is for the 
purpose of protecting these thread-like animalculse and assist their move- 
ments. It possesses the right density or specific gravity for this purpose. 
If the density be increased the movements of the spermatozoa will .be 
impeded ; if reduced, they are destroyed upon the principle of endosmose. 

EXAMINATION UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. 

I have in several instances placed a drop of semen under the micro- 
scope, which was very thick, and always found that the motion of the 
spermatozoa was exceedingly slow. They presented the appearance of a 
tangled mass of thread-like objects unable to extricate themselves. The 
moment, however, a drop of blood was applied, they found no difficulty 
in disentangling themselves. They would turn around once or twice and 
lash their tails, which seemed to unite the two liquids, and put the whole 
mass of animalculse in motion. 

The cause of motion of spermatozoa is not certainly known, but it is 
supposed to be similar to the wave-like motion in the ciliated cells of the 
uterus and Fallopian tubes. In cold-blooded animals, the . fishes for 
instance, they retain their power of motion longer than in warm-blooded 
animals. In the former they continue to move for days after being- 
expelled from the male. Their movements continue for a longer period 
in the interior of the female organs of generation. In some species ol 
insects the spermatozoa will continue their movements for months when 
brought in contact with the female organs of generation. 

In the human female it is supposed that the spermatozoa will retain 

their moving power for thirty-six hours after coitus. Common water at 

low temperature rapidly arrests their movements, while dilute sal 

solutions, or sugar and water, on the other hand, appear to have very 

little influence upon their actions. Such is also the fact with common 
i) 



130 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

saliva, or bile, or pus. Urine has rather an injurious influence upon 
their movements, especially when it has an acid reaction. The chemical 
agents are the only ones that have positive injurious effects upon the 
movements of spermatozoa. They not only stop their operations but 
dissolve their structure and change their composition. For instance, 
alcohol, acids, metallic salts, narcotics, strychnine have similar effects to 
common cold water. 

Heat and cold seem to affect their movements, although the action of 
the spermatozoa of frogs and fishes continue after the media in which 
they are surrounded sink below zero. The electric spark destroys the 
motion of spermatozoa instantly, by changing their structure, while Gal- 
vanism has no perceptible influence upon them, which fact is somewhat 
remarkable. I have made a number of experiments with chemical 
re-agents, under the microscope, and always found that mineral and vege- 
table acids dissolve spermatozoa instantaneously as electricity. The 
same is the fact with mineral and vegetable astringents. 

ABSURD THEORIES OF FORMER TIMES. 

On the first discovery of the seminal animalculse, there were many 
hypotheses advanced concerning them. By some they were considered 
the cause of sexual enjoyments or venereal propensities. Others sup- 
posed that the spermatozoa were of different sexes, and believed that if a 
female spermatozoon happened first to penetrate the ovum a female 
offspring was the result, and the reverse, when a male spermatozoon 
succeeded in fecundating the egg. Another class imagined that a sper- 
matozoon possessed all the organs of a human being in a compressed 
state, which became developed or unfolded by the female generative 
organs — in other words, that a spermatozoon was a miniature human 
being. 

Such absurd theories require no refutation. They were advanced in 
a hypothetical age of the world. 

Having thus shown the process by which the semen is received 
into the vagina, and given some idea of the manner of the passage of the 
spermatozoa into the Fallopian tubes, it will now be proper to investigate 
a very important part of the subject of Generation. 




UNFORTUNATELY, the precise period at which impregnation 
takes place in the human female cannot be definitely deter- 
mined. From observations, however, that have been made in a 
large number of cases, it would seem certain that it must occur 
during the first half of the menstrual period, most probably during the 
first half of the menstrual period, most probably during the first week 
after the cessation of the discharge. In sixteen cases observed by Raci- 
boski, conception only occurred as late as the tenth day. Notwithstand- 
ing the occurrence of impregnation is perhaps ninety-nine per cent, of 
cases within ten or twelve days after the cessation of the catamenial flux 
the other case may occur at any time subsequent to the last and prior to 
the next menstrual period. 

There is no evidence to support the theory that impregnation may 
occur at any time during each month, by the rupture of an ovasac as a 
consequence of sexual excitement. Nor is it likely that the ovum is 
retained in the Fallopian tubes from one menstrual period to another* 
Indeed, the contrary is proven by examination made on animals. It has 
been already stated in this work, that the ovum is usually from six to 
eight days in passing through the Fallopian tubes of the bitch. In the 
Guinea pig the time is from two to three days. In the rabbit it does not 
extend beyond the fourth day. 

Therefore, if the theory just mentioned cannot be maintained, the 
second hypothesis would seem inevitable, viz.: that an ovum, after it is 
ejected from the ovary, is from six to fourteen days in passing the tubes, 
and that impregnation must take place during that time. M. Pouchet is 
quite positive that the period is not beyond fourteen days. If the views 
of this distinguished physiologist be correct, it follows, as a matter o{ 

181 



132 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 



course, that there is a period after the cessation of the menstrual discharge 
during which woman is incapable of conception, which idea Pouchet 
himself adopts as logically philosophical. 

No doubt such is the fact as a general rule, but it may be necessary 
to account for the occasional mishap, or exceptional case, out of the two 
hundred that have been named. This is explained by M. Coste, who 
holds the same views with M. Pouchet in regard to the time in which 
cessation takes place after the cessation of the menstrual flow. 

Coste supposes that when a 
chance impregnation takes place 
after the fourteen days, that it is 
owing to the Graafian vesicle hav- 
ing failed to expel the ripened 
ovum, or the one that came to 
maturity at the last menstrual 
period, while sexual commerce oc- 
curring after this period is suffi- 
cient (on account of the excite- 
men attending it) to rupture the 
follicle and liberate the imprisoned 
ovum, and thus insure impregna- 
tion. 

To prove this he has presented 
a number of experiments which he 
had made upon animals. One of 
these cases is that of a rabbit which 
during heat manifested great de- 
view of the left side of the pelvis, the sire for the male, but was not per- 
bladder, uterus, vagina, and rectum. mitted conjunction. Forty-eight 
hours afterward it was killed, when the genital organs were found very 
much congested with blood. Six follicles in one ovary and two in the 
other were ready to burst, but no rupture had yet taken place. 

Another experiment also was upon a rabbit, which remained in heat 
three days, manifesting great ardor. On the fifth day it was killed, when 
the ovaries were found greatly congested, but without rupture of the 
follicles. Coste attributes the absence of rupture to the prevention of 
coitus. 

These experiments seem to favor the old theory of conception, viz.: 




WONDERS OF GENERATION. 133 

that the ova are detached conjointly with fecundation, and that conception 
may take place at any time during the interval of menstruation. 

Other experiments, however, which have been more recently made, 
and which have already been presented in this work, set aside this theory 
as incorrect. It is well known that the ova are ripening during menstru- 
ation, and that when this ceases they are no longer eliminated or thrown 
out of the ovaries. An occasional retention should not overturn a theory 
that has the whole chain of proof upon its side, with the exception of one 
link, which deficiency is satisfactorily explained by M. Coste. 

ESTABLISHED FACTS. 

In summary of established facts, then, a recapitulation of the most 
plausible and rational theory now entertained, may be presented as 
follows : 

It is during the menstrual period that the ova are ripened. They 
are then received into the Fallopian tubes, and occupy from six to four- 
teen days in their passage to the uterus. If impregnation occur, it must 
be from the union of the spermatozoon with the ovum, before the latter 
has passed out of the tube. Should there be no impregnation, the ovum 
passes into the uterus and is lost. If five days be allowed for menstrua- 
tion and fourteen days more for the passage of the ova (though twelve are 
accounted sufficient), there is accordingly a period of nine days during 
which impregnation cannot take place, except in rare cases, say once in 
one hundred times, or indeed, in five hundred times. 

Prevention of Conception. The question is often asked. " Can 
conception be prevented at all times ? " Certainly, this is possible ; but 
such an interference with Nature's laws is inadmissible, and perhaps 
never to be justified in any case whatever. 

During the past few years hundreds of works have been written, and 
many circulars distributed, to the females of the land, holding forth the 
idea that new remedies have been discovered for the prevention of con- 
ception. It is needless to state that such asseverations are impudent and 
wicked fabrications, and that the volumes and pamphlets are mere catch- 
penny devices, intended to deceive the public and enrich the pockets oi 
miserable and unprincipled charlatans and imposters. 

The truth is, there is no medicine taken internally capable of pre- 
venting conception, and the person who asserts to the contrary, not only 
speaks falsely, but is both a knave and a fool. It is true enough that 



134 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

remedies may be taken to produce abortion after conception occurs ; but 
those who prescribe and those who resort to such desperate expedients, 
can only be placed in the category of lunatics and assassins ! 

The only way that conception may be prevented, is by abstinence 
from sexual commerce during the first fourteen days after the cessation 
of the menstrual discharge ; or else by the destruction of the vitality of 
the spermatozoa, while in the vagina, or before they pass off through the 
uterus and come in contact with the ova in the Fallopian tubes, while on 
their passage towards the womb. 

Many plans have been devised by the French for the prevention of 

conception, but the most rational and certain means is to dissolve the 

spermatozoa while in the vagina, and before they pass into the womb. 

I have noticed a work recently published in Philadelphia, of considerable 

circulation, that professes to inform parents how they may have male or 

female children at their pleasure. It is scarcely necessary to remark that 

such opinion is absurd and erroneous. The ideas advanced are that the 

right testicle of the male secretes male semen, and the left testicle female 

semen. This supposition is equally ridiculous with that of the ancient 

physiologists, who imagined that the spermatozoa were miniature men 

and women. 

FALSE SPECULATIONS. 

There is not a particle of truth in such speculations. It is well 
known that men with only one testicle have been known to have had 
both male and female children. While upon this subject, it may be 
appropriate to mention certain vague and loose hypotheses that have 
recently been advanced. 

Dr. Silas Wright, of New Hampshire, in a paper published in the 
" Buffalo Medical Journal," maintains that males are conceived a short 
time prior to the menstrual discharge, and females shortly after its cessa- 
tion. In other words, if the ovum be impregnated before the appearance 
of the " courses," it will generally grow to be a male ; if after the menses, 
a female child will result. 

Again, in regard to the production of the sex, it has been stated that 
the right ovary produces male ova, and the left female ova. There is not 
a particle of truth in favor of either of these theories. On the contrary, 
there is abundant evidence against their probability. There are some 
other miscellaneous matters in reference to Generation that may be appro- 
priately presented in the present chapter. 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 135 

SuPERFCETATiON is literally the impregnation of a woman already 
pregnant. About the time the ovum arrives in the uterus, and 
even before, or about the time of conception, the uterus undergoes a 
change to prepare for the ovum. There is a sort of a lymph that forms 
on the outer surface of the lining membrane of that organ, of a flaky or 
velvety character, which is usually called the bed for the egg. This 
viscid mucus also blocks up the passage into the mouth of the womb, thus 
preventing subsequent conception. 

Among the lower animals, and some few cases of the human female, 
there appears to be superfcetation. It is known that puppies of a bitch 
will resemble more than one dog with which she has had connection 
during the period of heat, which time may embrace ten or twelve days. 

A mare which had been covered by a stallion was five days afterward 
covered by an ass, and bore twins — one being a horse, the other a mule. 

OASES OF UNNATURAL GENERATION. 

There are similar cases on record in regard to the human female. 
Women have borne children of different colors at the same parturition. In 
one of these instances, the mother acknowledged having admitted the 
embraces of a black servant a few hours after conjunction with her 
husband, who was white. 

Eisenmann mentions the case of a woman bearing a full-grown male 
child, and neither milk nor lochia (a uterine discharge that takes place 
after delivery) occurring after birth. In one hundred and thirty-nine days 
afterward she gave birth to a fine female child when the milk and 
discharge came naturally. It was supposed that this woman had a double 
uterus, which, however, was not the case, as was verified by an exam- 
ination after death. 

Desgranges mentions a case of a woman who bore two girls, at an 
interval of one hundred and sixty-eight days between them. Fourneir 
speaks of two girls born at interval of five months. Starke instances 
a case of two children whose births were one hundred and nine days 
apart, while Velpeau relates that Mad. Bigaux had two living children 
at an interval of four and a half months between the first and second 
birth. 

Dr. Mason published an account of a woman who was delivered of 
a full-grown infant, and in three calendar mouths afterward of another, 
apparently at full time. A woman was delivered at Strasburg, the 30th 



136 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

of April, 1748, at ten in the morning; in a month afterward, M. Leriche 
discovered a second foetus, and on the 16th of September, at five o'clock 
in the morning, the woman was delivered of a healthy full-grown infant. 
Buffon related a case of a woman in South Carolina, who brought 
forth a white and a black infant ; and on inquiry it was discovered that 
a negro had entered her apartment after the departure of her husband, and 
threatened to murder her unless she complied with his wishes. Moseley, 
Gardien, and Valentin, relate similar cases of black and white children 
born of intercourse with a black and white man on the same night, 
and the woman having children of different colors at the same parturition. 

NUMBER OF CHILDREN AT ONE BIRTH. 

As has been stated, each male dog will produce a distinct puppy ; 
this no one can deny. The offspring will resemble the males that 
fecundate the bitch in succession. This is the case of the mare, 
conjoined to the stallion and ass in succession, and likewise with other 
animals. Hence, reasoning from analogy, if a number of healthy, 
vigorous men were to have intercourse in succession, immediately after 
the first conception, it is quite probable and very possible that similar 
fcetation should happen. Dr. Elliotson advocates superfetation, and 
explains Buffon's case in this way. Magendie is of the same opinion. 
Medical men, and others, should bear in mind that women have had 
three, four, and five, and even six and seven children at one birth? 
while various cases of infants of different sizes being expelled in succes- 
sion are recorded in our own medical journals. 

Professor Velpeau, of Paris, speaking of Superfetation, says : "In 
according all possible authenticity to these observations, regarding their 
exactitude as demonstrated, the idea which prevails in physiology on 
generation, permits an easy explanation. Two ovules can be fecundated 
one after the other, in a woman who accords her favors to two or more 
men, the same day, or in two or three days afterward ; that is to say, to 
the moment when the excitation of the first coition causes the effusion of 
coagulable lymph into the uterus, to form the caducous membrane 
(decidua). These ovules may not descend through the uterine tube at the 
same time, and may be differently developed." 

Valpeau, however, thinks superfetation impossible after decidua is 
formed. According to Dewees, the closure of the os uteri after conception? 
does not take place for some days, weeks, or months. 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 137 

Admitting superfoetation to be possible (says Ryan), and it cannot be 
denied in the early weeks of generation, we cannot decide paternity, unless 
when one infant is black or brown, and the other white, but if both fathers 
were of the same color the decision might be difficult, unless some physi- 
cal mark on the infant existed in one of them." 

Some writers maintain that superfoetation is possible during the two 
first months of pregnancy. The majority, however, hold it possible during 
the first few days after conception, before the uterine tubes are closed by 
the decidua. This is the received opinion, though there are cases on record 
which justified Zacchias and other jurists to conclude that superfoetation 
might occur until the sixtieth day, or even later. 

RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN FAMILIES. 

Influence Exerted by Parents on Offspring. — One of the most 
important laws of the reproductive functions, is the preservation of 
distinct species for an undeviating succession of generations, preventing 
the extinction of the species by being blended and lost in others. 

Most persons are familiar with the resemblance that subsists between 
families from generation to generation, while it is well known that off- 
spring inherit many of the qualities and peculiarites of the parents. 
Hereditary resemblance, however, is seldom ever complete — numerous 
differences being almost always observed in the features and other char- 
acteristics of the same family. Male and female children seldom perfectly 
resemble either the father or the mother, but a blending of the character- 
istics of both are readity recognizable in the offspring. 

It might be supposed that as the mother furnishes the Qgg and its 
nourishment after conception, that the offspring would partake more o( 
her peculiarities than of the father's. This, however, is not the fact. 
There will be quite as much resemblance to the father as to the mother, 
if such phenomenon be not in favor of the former. 

The influence of the father must be imparted to the offspring at the 
time of the mingling of the spermatozoon and ovum, which is only 
momentarily. This being the case, it is reasonable to suppose that the 
greater proportion of the resemblance of the mother is imparted to the tgg 
previous to conception ; although it cannot be doubted that the mother 
exerts more or less physical and mental influence during the whole 
period of utero-gestation. 

In some animals the male parent seems to exert the greatest influence 



138 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

in the formation of the physical frame. This is particularly the case with 
dogs, horses, fowls, etc. It is known that the bantam cock will cause a 
common hen to lay a small egg, and a common cock a bantam hen to lay 
a large egg. 

As a general rule it cannot be said that either the male or female in 
the human species exerts more influence than the other in the physical 
and intellectual conformations or peculiarities of the offspring. In some 
families the children will most resemble the father ; in others, the mother's 
traits are the more predominant. 

Dr. Walker, in an Essay, states that the upper and back part of the 
head usually resembles the mother's ; while the face from the eyes down- 
ward most frequently resemble that of the father. The transmission of 
color seems to be better marked than other peculiarities. Two persons 
of different color cohabiting, and producing offspring, will produce a 
mulatto. In regard to color the preponderance seems to be on the side of 
the father. A dark man cohabiting with a white woman will produce a 
darker child than a dark mother conjoining with a white father. 

COLOR OF THE PARENTS. 

In some animals the color of both parents seems to be equally pre- 
served. This is the case with piebald horses. In some breeds of horses 
it has been found that as many as two hundred and five of the offspring 
or product of two hundred and sixteen pairs of horses, the color of the 
parents was equally preserved. The qualities of the mind are perhaps as 
much liable to hereditary transmission as bodily configuration. Memory 
judgment, imagination, passion, diseases, and what is usually called 
genius, are often markedly traced in the offspring. 

I have known mental impressions forcibly impressed upon offspring 
at the time of conception, as concomitant of some peculiar eccentricity, 
idiosyncracy, waywardness, irritability, morbidness, or proclivity of either 
or both parents. I recollect the case of a female who was quite a coquette 
before her marriage. She married against her parents' will, and went 
West with her husband. Having failed in his business, he was compelled 
to locate in his wife's neighborhood, and among her friends. This so 
humbled her pride that she excluded herself from society, and occupied 
the most of her time in reading the Scriptures and singing psalms, 
which seemed the only gratification for her mind. She conceived, and 
gave birth to a daughter while laboring under this religious melancholy 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 139 

or mental peculiarity. The child, as soon as it was old enough to notice 
anything, exhibited a singular fondness for the Bible, and was constantly 
humming psalms. 

I know a man whose mind was so much troubled in consequence of 
the cares of his business that he became extremely excitable and irritable 
of temper. His wife bore him a child while this mental disturbance 
continued. . Before its birth, he remarked that its mind would be on the 
" high-pressure principle." This prediction some years afterwards was 
fully verified. There can be no doubt that the peculiar mental character- 
istics of a parent are often repeated in the offspring. In estimating mental 
and physical inheritances, however, it should be remembered that much 
will depend upon education, pursuits, and modes of life, as all have a 
strong tendency to overcome hereditary influence. 

TRANSMISSION OP DISEASE. 

The transmission of disease from parent to offspring, is often 
markedly noticed. Almost all forms of mental derangements are heredi- 
tary — one of the parents, or near relation, being afflicted. Physical or 
bodily weakness is often hereditary, such as scrofula, gout, rheumatism, 
rickets, consumption, apoplexy, hernia, urinary calculi, hemorrhoids or 
piles, cataract, etc. In fact, all physical weakness if ingrafted in either 
parent, are transmitted from parents to offspring, and are often more 
strongly marked in the latter than in the former. 

Where both parents are affected with the same disease, the children 
will have the hereditary transmission more prominently developed than 
where only one parent is diseased. From observations made in upward of 
two hundred cases of consumption, I discovered that the child, which most 
resembled the parent that was consumptive, almost invariably contracted 
the disease and died with it before they had arrived at the middle period 
of life. 

In order to be more perfectly understood, a supposed case rnav be 
presented. The father is predisposed to consumption and the mother to 
nervous affections. They have six children — three of them resemble the 
father in temperament and other physical and mental peculiarities — while 
the other three have equally as strong a resemblance for those of the 
mother. Those that partake of the traits of the lather are most liable to 
consumption and to die of that disease, while those resembling the mother 
will inherit her infirmities. The children in whose organization l 



140 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

blended the peculiarities of both jDarents are usually liable to their respec- 
tive idiosyncracies and ailments. 

This law I have found invariably correct. Taking facts like these 
into consideration, how very important is it for persons before selecting 
partners for life, to deliberately weigh every element and circumstance of 
this nature, if they would ensure a felicitous union, and not entail upon 
their posterity, disease, misery and despair. Alas ! in too many instances 
matrimony is made a matter of money, while all earthly joys are sacri- 
ficed upon the accursed altars ol lust and mammon. 

CURIOUS FREAKS OF NATURE. 

Marks and Deformities. — Marks and deformities are also trans- 
missible from parents to offspring, equally with diseases and peculiar 
proclivities. Among such blemishes may be mentioned moles, hair-lips, 
deficient or supernumerary fingers, toes and other characteristics. It is 
also asserted that dogs and cats that have accidentally lost their tails, 
bring forth young similarly deformed. Blumenbach tells of a man who 
had lost his little finger having children with the same deformity. Inju- 
ries of the iris and deformities of fingers from whitlow are said to have 
been transmitted from parents to offspring. Such freaks of nature are 
possible, yet all such statements of peculiar anomalies are to be regarded 
with distrust, since it is well known that many maimed and malformed 
persons are the parents of children without such imperfections of physical 
appearance. 

A belief is entertained that the frequent breeding in the same family 
has a tendency to deteriorate a race. This rule appears to be applicable 
also to the animal kingdom. In the human such deterioration seems to 
be both mentally and physically manifested. The marriage of first 
cousins, although recognized in this country by law, is strongly denounced 
by many physiologists as extremely inimical to the perpetuation of a pure- 
blooded and vigorous race. The inter-marriage of different nations of the 
same type, as that of a Caucasian branch with another branch of the 
same ; or an African with another branch Ethiopian stock, will tend to 
the mental and physical vigor of the offspring of either type ; but admix- 
ture of the Caucasian with the Ethiopian, will deteriorate the type of the 
former race. 

An example of the admixture of one Caucasian race with other of 
the same order of genus, being productive of signal advantage is afforded 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 141 

in the Persian race by their intermarriage with the same beautiful Cir- 
cassian and Georgian woman. The same may be noticed in all civilized 
nations. The blending of the Saxon with the Celtic races, for instance, 
has an important bearing upon the temperament, mental qualities and 
physical conformations of the intermediate stock or issue. 

There seems to be an advantageous union of the respective elements 
of each, increasing physical stamina and intellectual attributes, as well 
as adding to the symmetry, grace, beauty and manliness of both nations. 
The union of the mercurial, fiery, and impulsive with the cool and phleg- 
matic, tends to promote that medium and balance of temperaments which 
is desirable as the chief characteristic of a proud, noble aud perfect man 
or woman, or even of a nation or people. 

The peculiar features, idiosyncracies, or other peculiarities of the 
Jewish or Hebrew race, are strikingly identical wherever these people are 
found, in all parts of the world — from the simple fact that they rarely 
ever marry or mix their blood with other than Jewish people, or with 
other races, whether of the same Caucasian type or not. Were these 
" peculiar people " to amalgamate more largely with other Caucasian 
branches of the human family, no doubt the Jewish physiognomy would 
soon become greatly altered, or modified at least, if not much improved. 

FINEST POSSIBLE PROGENY. 

The law of Nature appears to be immutable in respect to procrea- 
tion or reproduction. The more vigorous the races and types that com- 
mingle, the more certain it is that the product will be of an improved and 
exalted character. The breeders of fine cattle and other animals are 
cognizant of this principle of Nature, and accordingly select the purest 
breeds in order to ensure the finest possible progeny. The same law is 
applicable in husbandry, horticulture, nori-culture, etc. The choicest 
fruits, flowers and vegetables, are the result of a proper selection of the 
procreative elements aud a strict observance of Nature's mandates and 
requirements. So with the human family. It is doubtless capable of 
wonderful improvement and exaltation, were there a judicious blending 
of the highest -physical and mental attributes of the male and female 
progenitors of the species. The purer the parent stock, the more per 
will be the progeny, and the nearer will they approximate to the original 
or primitive type of excellence, or of organism. 

The stronger principle very naturally will drive out the weaker. 



142 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

Good and bad qualities will not permanently coalesce and produce any 
thing perfect. There will be a tendency either to good or evil. If the 
good element be the strongest, it will finally eradicate the evil element. 
If the evil principle be paramount that which is intrinsically good must 
succumb before its dominant power. There is evidently a tendency in 
every thing to return to the original type. 

We have examples of this in the mixture of the black and white 
races — or rather types — of mankind. Whatever may be said of the unity 
of the human race, it would seem that these types are entirely distinct, 
and by consequence, could not have sprung from the same original 
parent stock. 

According to the most reliable physiological and other data, there 

are at least four distinct types of man, as embraced under the terms 

Caucasian or white ; the Ethiopian, or black ; the Mongolian or yellow ; 

and the Indian, or red, however varied or multiplied the branches of each 

may appear. They are perhaps as distinct in essential elements as the 

rat and the mouse are distinct, or the monkey and baboon, or the lion and 

the cat, and were never intended to intermix, nor will they ever coalesce 

if allowed to remain in their normal or natural condition. The very 

location in which these respective types of man are found, favors this 

theory. 

DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEN. 

The negro is as much indigenous to Africa, or its latitudes and 
climates, as is the lion and boa constrictor to the same regions of the 
globe ; so with the other types of men to their native or specific latitudes. 
The banana is not found growing in the North, nor the apple in the 
South. So with flowers, fauna, and other objects of the animal and vege- 
table kingdoms. All have their fitting places, or locations, most adapted 
or suitable for their development, procreation or reproduction. The tiger 
does not thrive in a northern clime, nor will the bear or hog flourish in 
the torrid zone. The birds and fowls of a warm climate are different 
from those of a colder one, however they may resemble each other in 
many respects, or even when ranked in the same class, or of th e same 
genus or species. These facts are self-apparent, and 'will require no 
special argument for their verification. 

Take, for example, the crossing of the black and white races of man. 
The offspring of each successive generation becomes more nearly allied 
to the purest breed of the two — which is that of the white or Caucasian 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 143 

type. The progeny become whiter and whiter nntil the dark or negro 
element is entirely obliterated. On the contrary, by no process or 
alchemy of nature can you ever convert the progeny of a black man by a 
white woman to the dark color of the African father. The vis vitse of 
the two distinct races seem antagonistical and inharmonious, and therefore 
cannot equally commingle. That of the Caucasian, being more highly 
endowed, overcomes that of the African. The latter, after several suc- 
cessive generations, become completely extinct or absorbed by the former. 
This is illustrated by analogy, in the fact that the rat of Norway, 
imported into England and America, has totally driven out the original 
common rat of those countries. This seems to be a universal law of 
Nature, intended to protect and preserve distinct types — to save the 
weaker from the stronger. This truth is confirmed in the fact that 
hybrids rarely propagate, or, if they do, it is only for a limited and defi- 
nite period. The dominant principal must always prevail. Hence it is 
easy to believe in hereditary predisposition, or in the transmission of 
diseases or peculiarities from parents to offspring. 

APPEAR IN AFTER GENERATIONS. 

Not only is this the fact, but such abnormal peculiarities may extend 
through several successive generations. Sometimes they are intermitted 
or lost in one immediate generation to appear in a subsequent or later 
one, even to the third or fourth remove from the original malformed or 
diseased parental stock, agreeably to the text of Scripture, that the " sins 
(or infirmities) of the parents are visited upon the children to the third 
and fourth generation. " 

It becomes a matter of wonder when we come to inquire into the 
peculiarities of hereditary transmission, that two microscopic specks, 
such as the egg of the female and the spermatozoon of the male are 
capable of transmitting during three or four subsequent generations, all 
the weaknesses and imperfections of parents. This law, however, even 
becomes the more surprising when we come to inquire into the influence 
exerted by the minds of the parents upon these microscopic atoms at the 
time of conception, which is to unfold them into the future human being. 

We have already given several cases in corroboration of the influ- 
ence exerted by parents upon posterity, even in the most rudimenta] or 
incipient form of embryotic existence. Combe, in his great work on the 
u Constitution of Man,'' sustains similar views in an admirable manner. 



144 WONDERS OF ■ GENERATION. 

The celebrated Darwin, though he indulged in many chimerical notions, 
among others that man was originally developed from a tadpole — held 
views respecting the influence of the parents' mental qualities upon the 
offspring at the time of conception, that appear to be based upon the 
clearest facts and the highest philosophical deductions. 

Both of these authors demonstrate that children conceived during or 
after drunkenness or debauchery are liable not only to a predisposition to 
intemperance, but to a debility, both of mind and body, amounting in 
many instances to idiotcy itself. The same is proved of the venerous or 
amorous impulses. In short, according to the predominance of any 
propensity or frame of mind, the offspring may be a genius or a dolt, a 
sentimental swain or an unfeeling brute, a thief, a robber or a murderer. 

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TRAINING. 

These notions are corroborated in too many instances to gainsay 
their verity, yet I am constrained to think that more importance is 
attached to them than they deserve, in view of the power of secondary 
causes that may be brought to bear for the correction, amelioration or 
eradication of such inherent proclivities. Such influences, no doubt, are 
capable of being materially controlled by the mother, not only during the 
embryotic and fcetal life of the offspring, but in its physical and mental 
training in a subsequent period, after it arrives at a proper age, or years 
of intelligence and reflection. "Just as the twig is bent the tree's 
inclined," is an axiom as applicable to the human creature as to the tree 
or shrub. 

Hence the necessity of having mothers properly educated and fitted 
to mould the minds and mollify any physical and mental defect in their 
offspring, in the earlier stages of their existence, as well as having them 
to understand those laws which are calculated to ensure the rarest beauty 
and vigor of their progeny, as concomitant of a wise and judicious wedded 
union of the sexes, and those adjuncts of health and happiness flowing 
out of pure habits and a rational dietetic and hygienic system compatible 
with the natural vitality of the general organism. As the potter moulds 
his clay into beautiful and fantastic devices, so it is largely in the power 
of woman to assist Nature in forming the most perfect and glorious of 
human intellectual and physical developments and conformations. She 
should ever strive for her own perfection, and should never think of 
marriage until she can possess the proper mental and physical qualifica- 



WONDKRS OF GENERATION. 145 

tions to become a mother ! Indeed, the very name of mother is significant 
of everything that is pure and beautiful and lofty. The model men — the 
great and wise and good men — in all ages of the world, owe their exalta- 
tion to the pure minds, noble hearts, and heavenly virtues of beautiful and 
adorable Mothers ! 

The effect of the imagination of mothers upon their progeny, at the 
time of conception and after, has been doubted and ridiculed by many 
physiologists. Doubts and sneers and ridicule, however, are the weapons 
of ignorance and imbecility, and can never be used as arguments to over- 
throw palpable and irrefragable facts. Besides what has been advanced 
in the foregoing pages, there is a great abundance of evidence still at hand 
to substantiate all that has been affirmed in that regard. The same influ- 
ence will hold good not only in the human being, but perhaps in all of 
the lower orders of the animal kingdom. 

REGULATING COLOR OF THE COLT. 

It is related that when a stallion is about to cover a mare, and the 
color of the stallion be objectionable to the groom, if he will place before 
the mare during the time of sexual conjunction, a stallion of the desired 
color it will have the effect upon the mare to produce the required color 
in the foal, or a color different from that of its sire. This method has 
been repeatedly tried with unvarying success. 

The tyrant Dionysius supposed that handsome pictures and other 
objects influenced the minds of females during pregnancy so as to have a 
bearing upon the intellectual and physical attributes of their offspring. 
Hence, he was in the habit of hanging beautiful paintings in his wife's 
chamber, in order to improve the appearance of his children. Walker, in 
his work on " Beauty," supports a similar hypothesis. 

The sacred Scriptures speak of Jacob placing the peeled black and 
willow rods before the ewes as they went to drink, and the consequence in 
the ring-streaked, speckled and spotted colors of the offspring. 

The mother of Napoleon the Great, before he was born, followed her 
husband in his campaigns, and was subject to all the dangers and vicissi- 
tudes of a military life. To the influence of the mind of the mother, 
during utero-gestation, has been attributed the military skill and ambition 
of the illustrious Emperor of France. On the other hand, the murder of 
David Rizzio, in the presence of Queen Mai\\ was the death-blow to the 
courage of her son, King James, and caused his strong dislike to 
10 



146 WONDERS OF GENERATION. 

edged tools, which dislike was a peculiar characteristic of that crafty 
pedantic monarch. 

It is well known that some contagious diseases are readily trans- 
mitted from mother to offspring during utero-gestation ; such as syphilis, 
small-pox, measles, etc. Violence and severe affections of the mother 
are known to destroy the foetal child, and expel it from the uterus. 
Poisons have exerted the same influence when taken by the mother 
during pregnancy. This is easily explained and understood in the fact 
that poisons enter into the circulation, and that the same blood that 
circulates in the mother also supplies the foetal child with nourishment. 
By the same philosophy it is comprehended how a cancer may be made 
to grow on the breast of a female, by the concentration of her mind on the 
idea or possibility of such a result, or that cancers may be also cured 
through a similar force or influence of the imagination upon the fact. Dr. 
Warren, of Boston, instances a case of this kind. 

EFFECTS OF VIOLENT EMOTION. 

Jet black hair has been changed to white, as a result of some 
violent emotion, fear, etc. The milk of mothers has been rendered 
poisonous, so as speedily to destroy the offspring, through the influence 
of passion or other cerebral disturbance. Such phenomena are explained 
on the principle that nutrition, secretion, excretion, assimilation, and in 
fact, every function of the animal organism is controlled by the nerv- 
ous system — that the force generated in that system, called the " nerve 
force," is to the physical system what steam is to the machinery. It is by 
deranging this force that we have disease — first of functional character, 
which if not removed, soon causes a change in the structure of the organ. 
A cancerous tumor is a change in the nutrition of the part by an inter- 
ference in some way with the function of the sympathetic nervous 
system, either by causing a change in the blood by interfering with diges- 
tion or assimilation, or by causing a direct change in the nutrition of the 
part. 

It is proper to add, however, that women are often violently affected 
in many ways without leaving evidence of any abnormal peculiarities in 
the mental or physical characteristics of their offspring. The mysteries 
of nature are often inexplicable, but it is certainly a wise philosophy never 
to interfere improperly with her regular course of operations. The giving 
way to passions, freaks and whims, is always more or less productive of 



WONDERS OF GENERATION. 



147 



mischief, not only to mothers, bnt the offspring is liable to be affected by 
them. An unnatnral propensity should be curbed, if practical. A pass- 
ive, cheerful mind, agreeable society, suitable amusements, recreations, 
and exercise, with a careful attention to food and clothing, etc., all have a 
wonderful efficacy in dispelling megrims, moping melancholy, and other 
abnormal influences, quieting nervous irritability, purifying the blood, 
and inducing joyous, bounding health, with intellectual strength and physi- 
cal beauty, and the highest bliss and happiness possibly incident to a 
terrestrial state of existence. 

Truths of such importance as detailed in the foregoing pages are 
certainly worthy of the serious consideration of every married lady, or 
females of marriageable age, not only as a guide to save them multiform 
diseases and miseries, but as a means for the attainment of the highest 
and intellectual perfection compatible with the organism of woman, in the 
present state of existence. 




OR 

GESTATION 




CHAPTER XIII. 
[HE suppression of the menses is not a certain sign of 
pregnancy, although it is one of its most important con- 
comitant symptoms. Exposure to cold or wet, a shock 
to the nervous system from fright or other causes, uterine 
congestion or structural disease of the womb, — any of 
these may cause suppression. There are instances in 
the history of pregnancy when women menstruated regularly through 
the whole period of utero-gestation (pregnancy); and it often occurs that 
women menstruate for the first two or three months. Baudelocque and 
Dewees mention cases when women menstruated only during pregnancy. 
The enlargement and shape of the abdomen is not always a sure 
indication of pregnancy, and certainly not during the first three months. 
At the end of the third month, however, some physicians believe that 
they can detect a flatness in the lower part of the abdomen, which is pro- 
duced partly by the intestines being pushed upwards and sideways, and 
partly by gaseous, accumulations. During the first month, the process 
of gestation causes more blood to flow to the uterine region ; and the 
womb, in adapting itself to the new condition, causes a sympathetic irri- 
tation of the alimentary canal, which induces formation of gases that 
render the abdomen more tense and full: but this soon disappears, leaving 
the abdomen more natural, apparently destroying often the sanguine 
hopes of the would-be mother. 

Gases are often a concomitant symptom of pregnancy. In some 
cases, they are so troublesome as to suddenly collect in the abdomen ; and 
cause such distension as to throw the patient into spasms. 

After the third month, the abdomen acquires a very perceptible 
prominence, which gradually increases and rises, until it fills up the 
whole abdominal region. 

The increase and modification of the abdomen is not in itself a sure 
sign of pregnancy ; for some women, after marriage, become very fat ; 
others are so constructed as to show very little increase ; while others 
148 



PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 149 

show it very soon and plainly. Women having a large frame and large 
pelvis wonld show very little abdominal prominence ; but little women 
with small pelvis, or women having the lower part of the spine much 
curved forward, would show a great deal. This is to be borne in mind 
in judging of the advancement of pregnancy when there are no 
data to go by. 

Although a gradual increase of the abdomen is a strong indica- 
tion of pregnancy, there are often diseases that simulate it Drop- 
sy may be present ; tumors may be growing in the abdomen. These 
exceptional cases do not often interfere, however, with the diagnosis. 

A woman oftentimes cannot tell whether she is pregnant or not until 
the fourth or fifth month ; when quickening occurs, and there is no more 
room for doubt. There are, however, rational or sympathetic symptoms 
accompanying the suppression of the menses, strongly indicating that 
pregnancy exists. A month 
or two after conception, the 
mammcB (or breasts) enlarge, 
and often become the seat of 
slight pains and pricking 
sensations ; the nipples also 
enlarge, become tumid and 
darker ; the areola, or ring section of the lining membrane of a human uterus 
around the nipples, spreads AT THE period of commencing pregnancy. 

• • r i Showing the arrangement and other peculiarity of the glands 

in Circumterence, and. as- ^ ^ d> with their orifices, a, a, a, on the internal surface of the 

SUmeS a darker Color, in ° rgan " Twice the natural size. 

brunettes becoming almost black. The little follicles, or pimples, also 
become more prominent and darker, and the veins more blue. These 
symptoms and changes, however, often occur from sympathy with a 
diseased womb. And some women state that they experience them before 
and during every menstruation. 

The presence of milk in the mammae is an additional sign, although 
old women and young girls have been found with milk in their breasts. 

Morning sickness — nausea or actual vomiting on rising from bed — 
is another rational sign. The term is misapplied, however; for the 
sickness may come on after every meal, or at any time during the day or 
night. Many are fortunate enough to escape this distressing symptom 
entirely; others are subject to it during the first two or three mouths and 
the last; others are afflicted by it through the whole period, becoming 




150 



PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 





APPEARANCE OF THE SEMINAL 
GRANULES. 



APPEARANCE OF THE 
SEMINAL LIQUOR. 



thus much exhausted, and their life, in some instances, put in jeopardy. 
This symptom is so common, that it is sufficient in some women, to pro- 
nounce pregnancy at its appearance. It generally lasts from six weeks 
to three months, when a patient experiences a great relief until the eight 
month ; then it often re-appears. 

It is advanced, also, and it has been pretty thoroughly tested by accouch- 
eurs, that a certain change in the urine of a pregnant woman takes 

place, which may add to the 
circumstantial evidences of 
pregnancy ; and that is, the 
presence of a mucilaginous 
principle called Kyestein. 
This may be detected in the 
following manner : take half a pint of the urine of a woman supposed to be 
pregnant, passed early in the morning, before breakfast ; put in a glass 
cylinder or a tumbler ; cover it with paper, and let it rest in a safe place ; 
after two days, a dense pellicle or scum of fat-like matter will be found 
on its surface, which will increase for two or three days longer, and 
then evolve a powerful odor of putrefying cheese. 

For the sake of brevity, I will give here the recapitulation of the 
rational signs of pregnancy, according to Gazeaux. 

First and Second Months. — Suppression of the menses (numerous 
exceptions). Nausea, vomiting. Slight flatness of the 
lower part of the abdomen. Depression of the umbilical 
ring. Swelling of the breasts, accompanied with sensations 
of pricking and tenderness. 

Third and Fourth Months. — Suppression of the 
menses continued (a few exceptions). Frequently continuance of the 
nausea, and sometimes vomiting. Less depression 
of the umbilical ring. Augmented swelling of the 
breasts, prominence of the nipples, and slight dis- 
coloration in the areolae. Kyestein in the urine. 

Fifth and Sixth Months. — Sensation of 
quickening, motion in the abdomen. Suppression 
of the menses continued (some rare exceptions). 
Vomiting and nausea disappear (few exceptions). 
Considerable development of the whole sub-umbilical 
region. A convex, fluctuating, rounded abdominal protuberance, salient 




OVUM 14 DAYS 
OLD. 




OVUM AND EMBRYO 
15 DAYS OLD. 



PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 151 

particularly in the middle line, and sometimes exhibiting the fetal 
inequalities. The umbilical depression is almost completely effaced. 
The discoloration in the areolae is deeper, tubercles elevated. Kyestein 
in the urine. 

Seventh and Eighth Month. — Suppression of the menses continued 
(exceptions very rare). Active movements of the fcetus (child). Dis- 
orders of the stomach (rare). The abdomen more voluminous. Some- 
times pouting of the umbilicus. Numerous discoloration s on the skin of 
the abdomen. Sometimes a varicose and dropsical condition of the vulva 
and lower extremities. Extended and deeper discoloration of the areolae ; 
breasts still larger, and nipple more prominent ; sometimes flow of milk. 
Kyestein in the urine. 

MOTION OF THE CHILD. 

First Fortnight of the Ninth Month. — The vomiting frequently 
re-appears. The abdominal swelling has increased, rendering the skin 
very tense. Difficulty of respiration. All other symptoms increase in 
intensity. Sometimes pain in the back, and other irregular pains. 

Last Fortnight of the Ninth Month. — The vomiting often 
ceases. The abdomen is fallen. The respiration is easier. Great diffi- 
culty in walking. Frequent and ineffectual desire to urinate. Hemorr- 
hoids, augmentation of the varicose and dropsical state. Pains in the 
loins. 

" Quickening " is the common term by which is generally meant the 
first cognizance that a mother takes of the child's moving. This first 
motion of the child must not, however, be understood to be the beginning 
of life, but simply the beginning of muscular action. The period in 
which it occurs varies ; but, in the majority of cases, it dates from the 
eighteenth week of utero-gestation. The child may be felt earlier or 
later, stronger or weaker, probably according to its constitutional strength 
and the room it has to movein. 

I have seen cases where the mother prognosticated a strong, large 
child, from her feelings; while, to her great surprise, she gave birth 
to a small and puny infant. The great movement during preg- 
nancy was due to an immense quantity of water in the sac, in which the 
child could float and move freely. Whenever the mother cannot give 
approximate data of conception, she may safely calculate the date ot the 
eud by adding four months and a half to the date ot quickening. These 



152 



PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 



peculiar movements at first often induce sensations of syncope, or fainting, 
which gradually disappear as the woman becomes accustomed to the cause. 

The sensation of quickening does not remove all doubt as to the 
existence of pregnancy. Some women have not only felt this, but have 
even thought of having seen the movements of the child through the 
abdominal walls, and yet were not pregnant. Again ; women have been 
found pregnant when they had not been conscious of any sensation of 
quickening. The movements of the child may be so slight as to be 
imperceptible to the mother. 

Two hundred and eighty days is the general average of the duration 
of pregnancy, which may be divided into ten lunar months, or nine calen- 
dar months and ten days. 

Pregnancy is generally dated from the last appearance of the menses. 
In this, however, physiologists have differed ; probably from the fact that 
many women have been disappointed by this calculation ; and this ques- 
tion cannot be settled as long as it is impossible to exactly tell when 
conception takes place. 

NUMBER OF DAYS FOR GESTATION. 

The accepted theory is now, that an ovum descends into the womb 
immediately before or after every menstruation ; that it remains there 
eight or ten days, exposed to fecundation ; that, after this, it losses its 
vitality, and passes off, after which the female is not liable to conceive 
until the next operation of the ovaries. This theory has a great deal that 
is plausible, but has been found untenable in so many instances, that it 
is not to be relied on. An accoucheur of great renown and experience has 
given a hundred and fifty cases, in each of which he had noted the precise 
date of the last appearance of the menses. These cases, which will be 
found below, show the impossibility of making an exact calculation of 
the time of delivery from that date. 

Five women were delivered in from 252 to 259 days. 

Sixteen " " « " " 262 " 266 

Twenty- one women were delivered in from 267 " 273 

274 



Forty-six 

Twenty-eight 

Eighteen 

Eleven 

Five 



281 
288 
295 
303 



280 
287 
294 
301 
306 



37th week. 

38th 

39th 

40th 

41st 

42d 

43<i 

44th 



It can be well understood, that if a woman conceives just before her 



PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 153 

menses are due, and the menses become suppressed in consequence, and 
nine months are counted from the time of the appearance of the last, the 
calculation will fall short four weeks ; thus giving the false impression that 
the woman has been pregnant ten months before giving birth to the child. 
Advice to a Woman with Child. — First of all, be hopeful. 
There is not one case in a hundred in which life is imperilled ; and there 
is no reason why you should be that one. Take your chances with the 
ninety-nine. Do not appeal to old women, or listen to their stories. If 
you have any apprehension, apply to your physician, who will assist you 
in case of need. Be moderate in every thing ; shun balls, heated rooms, 
crowds and excitement. 

PRACTICAL ADVICE. 

Avoid unpleasant sights, and do not listen to frightful stories : there 
are instances reported, which, although no physiologist can explain them, 
have created such an impression upon the mind of a woman carrying 
child, as to cause her to give birth to an infant bearing marks of these 
impressions. Still, these instances are very rare. Dr. William Hunter 
of London, in two thousand cases of labor, was accustomed to ask, as 
soon as the woman was delivered, whether she had been disappointed in 
any object of her longing, whether she had been surprised by any unusual 
shock ; and, when answered in the affirmative, did not in one instance 
find the circumstances to coincide with marks on the child. Therefore, 
while I caution you against unpleasant impressions, I would by no means 
arouse in your minds any tendency to dwell on the fear of such an event. 

Take daily exercise in the open air ; do not lace ; do not run ; do not 
jump; do not drive unsafe horses; give up dancing and riding; do not 
plunge into cold water. Many women in your condition will tell you 
they have done these things, and no harm befell them ; still, do none of 
them. Sponging your body will .answer for cleanliness, and a happy 
heart for the dancing and riding. 

If you are weak, do not run for extolled tonics, for beer or whiskey. 
Apply to your physician : he will discover the cause, and find the reined}'. 

Do not take medicines (purgatives, in particular) on your own or 
your friends' advice : your physician is the only person capable to prescribe 
for you. I have known an " innocent purgative " to be followed by fright- 
ful consequences. 

In your diet use nothing that induces constipation. 



154 PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 

Remove from your chest, waist and abdomen any article of clothing 
that exerts undue pressure. 

Avoid all practices that increase nervous irritability, such as immoder- 
ate use of coffee or tea ; also, operations on the teeth. 

Do not indulge in inordinate or morbid appetites. A woman in preg- 
nancy may have unusual aversions or longings. It will do no harm to 
avoid what is repugnant to you ; but it may be detrimental to your health 
to satisfy the longing for slate-pencil, chalk, or other deleterious substances 
which sometimes women in your condition crave. 

But, above all, keep a cheerful mind ; do not yield to grief, jealousy, 
hatred, discontent, or any perversion of disposition. It is true that your 
very condition makes you more sensitive and irritable ; still, knowing this, 
control your feelings with all your moral strength. 

Your husband should be aware, also, that this unusual nervous irri- 
tability is a physical consequence of your condition, and would therefore 
be more indulgent and patient, unless he is a brute. 

AVOID VIOLENT EMOTIONS. 

If you believe that strong impressions upon the mother's mind may 
communicate themselves to the foetus, producing marks, deformity, etc., 
how much more you should believe that irritability, anger, repinings, 
spiritual disorders, may be impressed upon your child's moral and mental 
nature, rendering it weakly or nervous, passionate or morose, or in some 
sad way a reproduction of your own evil feelings ! And, indeed, this is 
more frequently found to be the case than is the physical marking of a 
child by its mother's impressions. 

Fears of danger in bearing children, so common in pregnant women, 
are very seldom well founded. If a woman has no deformity of the spine 
or pelvis ; if the distance from hip to hip indicates no unusual narrow- 
ness ; if, as she stands, she sees that she is as well formed as the majority 
of women; and if she knows of no objective reason herself, — she should 
conclude, without any further thought, that she is perfectly able to bear 
children. A deformity which would disable a woman from bearing 
children would be of such magnitude-as could hardly escape her notice. 

Experience does not show that a woman's first labor is necessarily a 
difficult one. It often occurs that her first labor is an easy and short one ; 
while subsequent ones are more protracted and painful. It depends upon 
the condition of the soft parts of the woman at that period, whether more 



PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 155 

or less relaxed ; and also upon the size of the child, which cannot be 
prognosticated. 

The size of women is never a hindrance in labor : small women bear 
large children with comparative ease. 

The Creator never intended that pregnancy should be a source of 
disease ; but. ignorance, false modesty, fashion, previously-acquired diseases 
of the womb, errors of regimen and diet, a weak constitution, bad training 
in girlhood, often lay the foundation of serious troubles during pregnancy. 

These diseases I will discuss separately, and suggest the means to 
avoid and to alleviate them. At the head of them stand mental disorders. 
Such are, undefined fear of impending evil ; anxiety about the future, and 
fear of dying; many forebodings and gloom, even to despair. 

SERIOUS MENTAL DISTURBANCES. 

These mental disturbances, although they may have no cause, are 
serious in the extreme. It is important to the mother's well-being, and 
to a happy termination of her labor, that these mental illusions should be 
conquered. Serious consequences have been produced by an overwrought 
imagination. This dark phantom that hangs over the reason of the already 
burdened patient should be chased away by gentle reasoning and moral 
suasion. 

Mothers, your God is a God of love, and would not threaten with 
danger her who is the mother of mankind. A special reason exists why 
the Great Father should extend his protecting hand over a woman who 
bears a human being in her womb. Fear and despondency is not grati- 
tude or thanksgiving to Him who willed it that to bear a child should be 
a gift to woman, who can love and protect her offspring with all the 
strength of her soul. In choosing Mary as the mother of His only- 
begotten Son, he did not surround her with impending dangers and with 
fear of death. Her heart beat with joy that she was to beget a child. 
Her prayers were thanksgivings for the great privilege. You are, as she 
was, a creature of your God. Away, then, with your gloomy thoughts ! 
Rejoice that you are one of the elect! In a short time, a human being 
— flesh of your flesh, a creature of your God — will lie on your lap to ask 
from your lips the smile of a happy mother. 

To you, husbands, I say, Reflect upon the manifold inconveniences 
and annoyances your wife must labor under while pregnant. The love 
which you gave her before the altar of God — double it now. Think ot the 



156 PREGNANCY OR GESTATION. 

suffering you are spared, which she must undergo to give }^ou the delight 
of paternity. In doubling your attentions, in anticipating her desires, in 
calming her fears, in soothing her irritations, you do only your duty, 
though it should also be your highest pleasure. Do it cheerfully ; let 
your devotion spring from a manly heart, — from the heart of a true hus- 
band. What was a molehill to your wife before must be a mountain now. 
Smooth her rugged path ; shade her from the burning flame of* mental 
agitation ; encourage her, inspire her with hope; and when the time comes 
that she lies prostrate, her face beaming with happiness at the sounds of 
her first-born, thank God that you have been kind to her. 

The hygiene in these cases is purely a moral one, and must be con- 
ducted by a careful and loving husband and affectionate relatives or 
friends. When forebodings and gloom pervade the mind of her who is to 
become a mother, reasoning may be in vain. In this case, her condition 
should not be totally ignored, lest offence be given ; but unknowingly to 
her, and apparently unaffected by her fears, simple means may be 
employed to throw her off the gloomy path of her thoughts. The wife's 
tastes and predilections when in health being known, there are a hundred 
things that can be done to attract her from her sorrow of self into innocent 
distractions and pleasures. This must be done without an effort or an 
apparent purpose, else the object may be defeated by making her aware 
that care and kindness is induced by solicitude. Bring home a good book, 
a favorite fruit, or a mutual friend with whom you may enter into an 
innocent conspiracy for her good. 

Invite her to take a walk ; and then do not rush her through an 
unfeeling crowd, but walk leisurely in a favorite place ; call her attention 
to objects of interest, and even to trifles, that may have amused her 
before. Have some congenial friends at home ; a game of whist, or any 
sort of innocent game, and moderate gayety, a little surprise-party of 
dropping-in friends, — some genial, happy faces. If it be necessarj', an 
innocent plot with your friends may be formed to get her out some even- 
ing to a social meeting, a lecture, a concert, a lively, pleasing drama. If 
the rooms or halls are too hot or crowded, you may show solicitude enough 
to take her home. Cheerful fireside, unstinted sacrifices, loving sympathy, 
will rob the mind of many a dark shadow. Change of scene ; short, easy 
journeys to favorite cities or spots, is a source of pleasant and healthy 
excitement that will invigorate body and mind. Be never weary, and 
success and happiness will crown your noble efforts. 




maladies 
During Pregnancy 




,^XKHW^ 



CHAPTER XIV. 



p— - -— — ^ 




i 



N connection with this subject, I have alreaoV 
mentioned morning sickness as a concomi- 
tant symptom of pregnancy. It is probably 
the most reliable sign. Some women have 
only to feel the return of this discomfort to 
\ declare themselves pregnant. Vomiting can, 
nevertheless, occur under different circum- 
stances ; yet when the tongue is clean, and 
"\ ^/ free from all appearances indicating disease 
of the abdominal viscera, and the vomiting 
persistently and periodically returns on rising 
from bed ; before, after, or during meals, at cer- 
tain hours of day or night, — physicians accept it as a 
conclusive evidence of pregnancy. 

It may appear immediately after conception ; but it more frequentl}' 
commences after the second or third week. It may continue for three or 
four months, — generally not beyond the third, — and sometimes it will not 
cease until quickening. It may continue irrepressibly through the whole 
period; but, generally, it only re-appears after the eighth month, and 
ceases when the enlargement descends in the abdomen, two weeks 
previous to confinement. 

The frequency and intensity of the vomiting varies in different sub- 
jects, and often in the same. A woman may vomit only in the morning, 
before eating, — a sort of viscid, glassy mucus, which may be accompanied 
by some green bile, particularly if the straining is severe. Some vomit 
after eating, and then easily emit the ingesta. It happens, also, that 
vomiting is induced after a few mouthfuls of food ; and the patient is able 
to return and finish her repast without inconvenience. There are distress- 
ing cases in which even the smell of food provokes vomiting. Again, 
the patient has nausea, and makes all the efforts of vomiting without 
being able to do so. In cases where the straining is very severe, the 

L57 



158 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

shock may be communicated to the lower part of the abdomen, causing 
distressing pain, which, however, gradually wears away in a few hours. 

Physiologists and pathologists have endeavored to explain this 
phenomenon, but without success. There is no doubt that it is connected 
with the changes of the womb ; for we often see vomiting in patients 
affected by a diseased womb, and there are many who vomit during the 
first days of every menstruation. They have endeavored, also, to trace 
these obscure sympathies ; but never have been able to go beyond the 
fair supposition that the sympathy exists. Some pathologists — like 
Bennet — insist that the nausea is always connected with a diseased con- 
dition of the womb ; but this is not often true, because thousands of 
women who vomit during pregnancy are without any disease whatsoever. 

During the later months, we may account for it by the fact that the 
swollen womb interferes with the locality of the stomach, pressing it 
upward. We know how easily we can be made sick by a slight pressure 
on the stomach. This would account for the relief obtained during the 
last two weeks, when the womb descends in the basin, preparatory to the 
expulsion of the foetus, and yields the needed room to the stomach. 

HOW THE SYMPTOMS ARE AGGRAVATED. 

Nervous susceptibility may be greater in some than others. Consti- 
tutional disturbances, a reckless disregard of the laws of digestion, indul- 
gence in obnoxious articles of food, devotion to the baneful fashion of 
small waists, may greatly aggravate this distressing symptom. 

The theory that the process of expansion is the cause of vomiting is 
the most reasonable to my mind : and the objections of Gazeaux, because 
some women have been afflicted by vomiting more during a second preg- 
nancy than during a first one, are not sufficient to overcome its proba- 
bility ; since the rigidity of the womb may be different at different times, 
and vary according to constitutional or functional abnormalities during 
the period of non-pregnancy. In attempting to expand the mouth of the 
womb in dysmenorrhea, I have been often arrested by the complaint that 
the operation produced nausea. 

Even the periodicity of the vomiting is not sufficient reason to over- 
come these premises ; for the womb is the organ of periodicity par excel- 
' lence. Does not the womb give periodical pain during labor? Why is 
not its contraction continuous and final ? If its contractions for the 
expulsion of the fcetus are periodical, why should not its dilatations in 



MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 159 

accommodating itself for its abode and growth be the same ? The process 
of labor gives other evidence in favor of this theory. While the contrac- 
tions of the fundus of the uterus, and the dilatation of its mouth, are 
going on to expel the foetus, the patient often vomits freely. Again : a 
patient may increase her contracting pains by walking, by drinking a 
glass of water or a cup of tea. Thus we can appreciate this mutual reflex 
action of the stomach upon the womb, and, vice versa, the womb upon the 
stomach ; a sympathy that may be excited from either end. 

Irrepressible and long-continued vomiting, however, must be con- 
nected with some disorganization, maintaining a constant irritability of 
the womb ; such as ulcerations, displacements, or congestion : or it may 
be due to an excessive sensibility of the nervous system. This vomiting 
may be very severe and intractable, particularly when no cause can be 
ascertained. Premature labor has often been induced on the plea that the 
life of the patient is in danger ; but this high-handed measure is some- 
times distrusted by the fact that the most irrepressible vomiting has 
suddenly ceased without medical or surgical interference. A shock from 
sudden joy or fear, it has been recorded, has stopped the vomiting, never 
to re-appear. This would lead us to suppose, that, in those instances, it 
was a nervous disturbance suddenly changed by stronger impressions. 

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE STOMACH. 

In irrepressible vomiting, however,, the womb should be examined, 
and, if found diseased, proper medical or surgical treatment should be 
applied. 

Simple vomiting may be borne with comparative comfort and 
patience ; it will produce no disastrous effects on the patient, — nay, in 
some cases it seems only to deplete the system, which is a natural treat- 
ment in plethora, against which we have no gainsay. Vomiting that 
requires medical treatment is rare ; still, when a constant vomiting inter- 
feres with the functions of the stomach, and wears away the patient, 
medical assistance is absolutely required. 

The apprehension that excessive vomiting may affect the well-being 
of the child in the womb must be done away with ; for there is not one 
instance recorded where it is proven that the child has thus been affected. 
God, in His loving and mysterious way, has taken care that the germ of 
mankind should be well protected. 

The best treatment is a cheerful mind ; avoidance ot mental excite- 






160 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

ment (passion, anger, fear, etc.) ; exercise in the open air without fatigue ; 
early hours to rest, and early rising, When the sickness overtakes you 
on rising from bed, try taking breakfast before rising. A few mouthfnls 
of pulverized ice, swallowed quickly, often relieve nausea. In distress- 
ing vomiting, ice applied to the pit of the stomach has given relief, 
although it is a hazardous remedy. Champagne, in many instances, has 
relieved vomiting very promptly : I have prescribed it with, success for 
nausea of jaundice and cholerine. A change of the usual hours of eating, 
the use of lemonade, Vichy-water, or a few teaspoonfuls of sherry-wine, 
brandy, ether, peppermint-water, or a watery solution of Calomba-root, 
have relieved cases. 

A good appetite should be satisfied ; but a voracious one should be 
allayed by light food, taken often, in not very large quantities. 

UNNATURAL LONGINGS. 

I have already mentioned appetites for unusual or obnoxious articles. 
As moral persuasion is almost always useless in these cases, care should be 
taken that the indulgence allowed may not seriously interfere with digestion 
and health. The importance that people attach to these longings is 
unfounded, and should not be gratified to any great extent. 

It is true, that, in many cases where the stomach craves unwhole- 
some articles, they have been taken with impunity : still, prudence is a 
shield against accidents. 

In loss of appetite, it is useless to force the patient to eat ; then the 
most nourishing food should be concentrated in small quantities ; such as 
beef-tea, calfs-foot jellies, eggs, cream, etc. A little wine may be useful ; 
but medicated tonics should not be taken without the advice of the 
physician. Keep in the open air ; take gentle exercise, walking parti- 
cularly. 

The diet should consist of wholesome articles, such as beef, mutton, 
lamb, fowl, game, etc. (either roasted or boiled, in preference to broiled 
and baked) ; and all salted, spiced, or smoked aliment ought to be taken 
sparingly, or not at all, if the stomach is delicate, as they generally 
derange it. The flesh of young animals — as veal, lamb, chicken, and 
certain kinds of fish — is less nutritious than the other articles mentioned, 
and is therefore considered lighter. Fatty food — as pork, duck, eel, butter, 
oil, etc. — generally disagrees with nervous, bilious, or dyspeptic persons, 
and those who suffer from indigestion, flatulency, and lowness of spirits, 



MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 161 

especially during pregnancy, when there already is more or less 
tendency to nausea and vomiting. 

Farinaceous food — such as bread, rice, potato, beans, peas, sago, arrow- 
root, and tapioca — is highly nutritious, though it may in some cases 
induce heartburn, flatulency, and indigestion. Mucilaginous aliments 
— as carrots, turnips, parsnips, cabbages, and asparagus — ought to be taken 
but sparingly by pregnant women, and those who suckle their infants ; 
and then a little pepper should be used with them. Sweet food — as sugar, 
molasses, candies, dates, fruits, etc. — should be used in moderation. 
Finally, — as the stomach is irritable and delicate in most pregnant 
women during the first months, — it is highly necessary that their food 
should be both cut small, and then well masticated, to render it more 
fitted, and more easily acted upon by the stomach ; and drink, too, should 
be used sparingly while eating; for, if the gastric juice be too much 
diluted, it cannot act upon the food in an efficient manner. 

THE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENT. 

And, above all, I recommend that no ices should be taken on full 
stomach, as heat acts a very important part in digestion. Coffee and tea 
should be used moderately. 

A Belladonna Plaster over the region of the womb often assists in 
relieving nausea. It should be taken off as soon as there appears an 
undue dilatation of the pupil of the eye. 

Constipation is a disorder that often accompanies pregnancy, and 
may be the source of many troublesome symptoms, and, in aggravated 
cases, a cause of dangerous irritation to the impregnated womb. Women 
who were never of costive habit before may become so now ; and women 
who were subject to it before may become so much worse now as to be 
unable to have a healthful evacuation without the interference of some 
mechanical or medicinal means. 

This may be due, partly to the increased action of the womb, drawing 
as it were, blood and nervous force from neighboring organs ; partly to 
the mechanical pressure which the womb, in its enlarged condition exerts 
upon the rectum ; and, also, to the indolence which a woman in a state ot 
pregnancy may indulge in, or to a deficiency of bile, which, in cases of 
hard vomiting, is pressed into and ejected from the stomach. 

Whatever may be the cause, and whatever may have been her ha'. 
before, a pregnant woman should pow pay particular attention that masses 
11 



162 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

of faeces should not accumulate in her bowels. Piles would be almost a 
necessary consequence from pressure on the hemorrhoidal veins. Bearing- 
down pains, pains in the back, flatulence, colic, displacement of the womb, 
swelling of the veins of the legs (increasing the tendency to dropsy of the 
feet), headache, giddiness, sleeplessness, may follow. 

In women who easily miscarry, the undue pressure on the womb will 
increase the liability ; and during labor, fecal masses may expand the 
descending intestines and the rectum, so as to obstruct the exit of the child, 
or be expelled, during labor, by the powerful pressure of the descending 
womb, to the great annoyance of the patient and attendants. A disregard of 
this costive condition has placed ladies in the most unpleasant and awkward 
predicaments, as well as in real danger. It has sometimes been known 
to produce inflammation of the bowels, so fatal in the puerperal period. 

Appropriate diet, and regular exercise in the open air, is most 
important. To women thus affected, I would recommend especially not 
to eat chalk, or take magnesia as a laxative ; for both have been known 
to become hardened, or have hardened some of the faeces, so that it became 
impossible to evacuate them without powerful drastics or mechanical 
means, to the great distress and danger of the patient. 

WHAT THE DIET SHOULD CONSIST OP. 

The diet should not be of dry food : vegetable diet is preferable. The 
use of fruits, such as prunes, figs, roasted apples, oranges, etc., is benefi- 
cial, except in those cases where they produce flatulence. Brown bread, 
oat-meal, porridge, and the use of olive-oil, in substance or as a condiment, 
are sometimes sufficient. A tumblerful of water before going to bed, or 
an orange before breakfast, has also produced good results. 

Beware of cathartics ! While some are simple enough, others, such 
as aloes, turpentine, and other irritating drastics, have caused abortion. 
Do not take a cathartic without the advice of a physician. 

•Diarrhoea is often the sequence of constipation. The hardened faeces, 
that have for a long time obstructed the proper action of the intestines, 
finally cause an irritation of the mucous membrane, that produces a watery 
diarrhoea, even without unloading the bowels. Nervous irritation, induced 
by pregnancy, is also often a cause, as well as colds, defect in dress, and 
improper diet. In severe cases the diarrhoea is induced by ulceration of 
the mucous membrane, caused by previous fecal accumulations, in which 
case the patient suffers from pain (a sensation of internal burning), the 



MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 163 

pulse quickens, the tongue becomes dry, the skin hot, and the appetite is 
lost. Thirst and emaciation, followed by vomiting, may supervene, 
placing the patient in a very precarious condition. 

In cases where the diarrhoea is alternated by passages of hard, lumpy 
stools, indicating a mechanical irritation above by indurated faeces, a 
teaspoonful of castor-oil may be sufficient to remove the cause and the 
disease. 

The diet should be the reverse of that recommended for constipation. 
Avoid acid fruits and coarse food and vegetables ; live principally on rare 
meats, beef-tea, rice, arrowroot, tapioca, etc. 

Flatulence and colic I place in the same paragraph, because the 
former is, in a great majority of cases, the cause of the latter. Wind- 
colic, as it is vulgarly termed, can be excessively troublesome and 
distressing. I have known a case where it would awaken the patient 
regularly, between eleven and twelve o'clock at night, and put her, in ten 
or fifteen minutes, into such distress, that she would throw herself about 
in perfect agony, from the distention of the abdomen, and a pressure upon 
her lungs so that she could hardly breathe. On one occasion it threw 
her into a violent convulsion in fifteen minutes from her awakening. 

USE OF DOMESTIC MEDICINES. 

The diet should be of the most digestible kind, and food well masti- 
cated. Acid fruits and vegetables are apt to produce or increase it, 
particularly uncooked apples, cabbages, onions, beans, etc. Eat moder- 
ately, rather often and little at a time, than a full meal rarely. Eat 
nothing for three or four hours before going to bed. 

Domestic medicines — such as peppermint, ginger, aniseed — are often 
useful in assisting to expel the gas. Sometimes a tumblerful of warm 
water, taken internally, has caused an easy vomiting, and with it the 
emission of an incredible quantity of wind. When the wind seems lower 
in the abdomen, or rolling about, an injection of warm water has caused 
a slight movement of the bowels, which afforded a chance for the gas to 
escape. 

For diet and medical treatment, see paragraph on " Constipation." 

Hemorrhoids, or piles, are a vefy common disease, attending pregnant 
women, and, in fact, all people of sedentary and constipated habits. Piles 
are an enlargement of the hemorrhoidal veins of the rectum, constituting 
small tumors from the size of a pea to the size of a walnut. When the 



164 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

tumors are within the rectum, they are called bleeding or internal piles, 
which are the origin, sometimes, of profuse hemorrhage. Those without 
go by the name of external or blind piles, because they seldom bleed. 

They are caused by pressure of the womb, or by distention of costive 
bowels, upon the veins of the rectum ; preventing the return of the blood. 
The veins become varicose, and finally distend into separate and distinct 
tumors. These may be numerous, and may surround the whole circum- 
ference of the anus ; closing it, and causing great pain and distress at 
each evacuation. 

The bleeding or internal piles sometimes discharge blood at regular 
periodic intervals ; again, they bleed so profusely as to prostrate the 
patient. These hemorrhages may be preceded by a sensation of weight 
and pain at the small of the back and loins, stinging and burning, swell- 
ing and fullness, with throbbing in the rectum. 

TREATMENT FOR THE PILES. 

When the piles protrude, they may become strangulated, causing 
severe suffering. In such cases they must be returned as soon as possi- 
ble, which can easily be done by taking them within four fingers united 
in a cone, and gently and gradually squeezing, and pressing them within. 
Then the patient should lie down and endeavor to retain them. A pad 
of cotton cloth dipped in cold water, or even containing a small piece of 
ice, should be kept at the rectum. If the bowels are constipated, they 
should be moved by repeated enemas of warm water. In fact, the patient 
should not allow herself to have a costive movement at all. If there is 
much irritation and pain, it may be allayed by the application of a poultice 
of slippery-elm or marsh-mallow. 

Daily enemas of cold water will cause contraction of the hemorrhoi- 
dal veins, and prevent the return of the piles. Walking or standing will 
aggravate them. The sitting on cane-bottomed chairs is beneficial ; while 
the warmth of stuffed seats increases the liability to these troubles. 
When the case is bad, it should be attended by a skilful physician. The 
diet and regimen for Constipation holds good in Piles. 

Of all neuralgias, toothache is the most common among pregnant 
women. It generally affects the lower jaw; sometimes on one side, 
sometimes on both. It commences during the first months of pregnancy, 
ceasing about the fourth or fifth month. 

If a tooth is diseased from partial decay, or exposure of the nerve 



MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 165 

from a cavity, a dentist should be consulted. Persons of nervous sensi- 
bility, or addicted to miscarriage, should not have teeth extracted during 
pregnancy ; for the apprehension of pain, and the shock received in the 
extraction, have sometimes caused abortion. 

Itching is often very distressing and very troublesome, not only to 
pregnant females, but to persons of all ages. It may be so severe as to 
deprive the sufferer of any sleep or rest. Sometimes it occurs without 
any appreciable cause ; again, it is induced by the want of proper clean- 
liness. It may affect any part of the body ; but, when it affects the 
private parts, it is perfectly intolerable. In pregnancy, it may be owing 
to some discharges from the vagina of an acrid nature : in this case, a 
daily washing of the vagina, even two or three times a day, with castile 
soap and water, is absolutely necessary. If that is not sufficient, a wash 
of borax, or an injection of ammoniated water (two tablespoonfuls of the 
aromatic spirit of ammonia in a tumblerful of water), may prove so. 

WHAT OCCASIONS SHORTNESS OF BREATH. 

Shortness of breath is a difficulty that is troublesome, but not danger- 
ous ; will occur particularly during the latter months of pregnancy, when 
the abdominal muscles are too distended to assist the muscles of the chest, 
and when the abdominal cavity is so filled as to give no extra room to 
the lungs for free expansion. 

When it occurs in the beginning of pregnancy, it is generally a mere 
nervous sympathy with the womb ; when it occurs in the middle of preg- 
nancy, it may depend upon a plethoric state of the system, which should 
be attended to by the physician ; and this is particularly the case, when, 
at every motion, the breath is impeded, or the heart palpitates. 

Those liable to asthma should be able to distinguish the difference ; 
for in that disease there is more or less mucus rattling in the chest 
at every expiration and inspiration. Moreover, the short breathing 
from pregnancy is always ameliorated by rest; while that from asthma 
is not. 

Rest is important ; the stomach should not be overloaded by hearty 
meals; eat often, and little at a time. Costiveness of the bowels should 
not be tolerated ; for the patient wants all the interior room possible. 
The dress should be worn loose. Medicine is useless, of course, when 
short breathing is produced simply by the mechanical pressure of the 
enlarged fetal tumor during the last two months. 



166 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

In the earlier stages of pregnancy, this trouble may be relieved by 
ipecac, a drop of the tincture every two or three hours. 

Spitting of blood is very rare ; still, when it occurs in connection 
with consumption, it is sufficiently formidable to send for a physician 
immediately. It may occur, however, independently of this, from a 
simple congestion, due to the suppression of the usual menses. In this 
case, it may appear at the time that the menses wxmld be due, and would 
not be dangerous to the patient ; on the contrary, it would relieve the 
congestion. Let the patient retire to bed, and assume a semi-reclined 
position ; put a cold, wet bandage around the chest, cover it well with 
flannel, and, when it gets very warm, renew it. 

Women, and particularly weakly ones, and those of nervous tem- 
peraments, are liable to palpitation of the heart, when in a state of preg- 
nancy. The exciting causes are mental agitation, sudden starts, disor- 
dered stomach and bowels, errors in diet, and the motion of the child. 
The drinking of large quantities of coffee or green tea will also predis- 
pose the woman to palpitation. 

LIABLE TO ATTACKS AT ANY TIME. 

The attacks may come on while awake or while asleep, suddenly or 
gradually. When the heart beats violently, it produces a queer choking 
sensation in the throat, and makes one feel almost sick at the stomach : 
the cold perspiration may sometimes be felt all over. The excessive 
beating may even shake the body. The action of the heart at such times 
is generally regular, although excessive, and rarely intermits. Giddi- 
ness, dimness of vision, heat and pressure in the head, stupefaction, may 
accompany an attack. 

This will soon subside if the patient takes a recumbent position. 
Smelling salts of ammonia, or taking a teaspoonful of brandy or whiskey, 
is useful. Although extremely distressing, palpitation of the heart is 
hardly ever dangerous. The cause should be inquired into. If induced 
by indigestion, flatulency, sour stomach, etc., the diet should be attended 
to; so with the bowels, if constipation is present. So much has been said 
already about the diet in constipation and indigestion, under their respec- 
tive heads, that it is useless to repeat. 

Fainting is not an unusual occurrence among women during the first 
month of pregnancy. Many females take it as a sign of pregnancy, even 
before the suppression of the menses. At the period of quickening, how- 



MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 167 

ever, it is quite common ; probably owing to a sympathetic nervous 
irritation from the movements of the child. A cause of fainting, during 
pregnancy, is tight dressing, and oppressive, confined air. It is common 
to see women leave theatres and churches in a fainting condition. 
Nervous and delicate females are easily overtaken by fainting. 

It is generally a disorder that should create no alarm, unless it is 
connected with disease of the heart ; in which case, it is sufficiently 
serious to call in medical assistance. During the later months of preg- 
nancy, it is regarded with some apprehension, on account of unpleasant 
anticipations after delivery. During pregnancy, it is apt to frighten the 
attendants ; but the alarm is groundless, as it will not interfere with the 
process of parturition, nor expose the patient to any danger. 

DANGERS CONNECTED WITH FAINTING. 

Fainting may be regarded with suspicion immediately after delivery, 
if there is hemorrhage, or the discharges are entirely stopped. In that 
case, the cavity of the uterus should be examined, lest a clot of blood 
hides an internal hemorrhage. In this case, however, the fainting is pro- 
longed, the face is ashy pale, the lips bluish, there is a fulness in the 
abdomen, attended by a sensation of weight. 

The first thing to be done in fainting is to lay the patient flat on the 
bed, with the head even with the body ; loosen the dresses around the 
chest ; allow plenty of air ; sprinkle cold water on the face ; and, if at 
hand, apply to the nostrils salts of ammonia or camphor, cologne, vine- 
gar, etc. This is generally sufficient to restore the patient. If, after 
fainting, there is a great sensation of weakness, a little wine, brandy, or 
whiskey may be administered. 

Vomiting may occur in recovering from faintness ; do not interfere, 
it relieves. If the patient falls asleep soon after, let her alone : she will 
awaken much refreshed. 

From the fifth to the eighth month, from sympathy and when the 
pressure of the extended womb reaches the region of the liver, a fulness 
and a state of congestion may occur which induce a deep-seated pain or 
aching on the right side, aggravated by motion, by coughing, or 
taking of a long breath ; it may be accompanied by a sensation of heal, 
and of a dull, heavy weight in the part affected. 

At such times, exercise should be very moderate. The application 
of a mustard-poultice is useful when the pain is acute. A cold, wet baud- 



168 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

age, put on when retiring, and well covered with flannel, will sometimes 
relieve this pain entirely. If the pain is connected with inflammation of 
the liver, which would be detected by the presence of fever, chilliness, 
and yellowish-coated tongue, a pl^sician should be consulted. 

Next to disturbance of the stomach, headache is considered the most 
common complaint of pregnant women ; and we are safe in saying the 
most common complaint amongst men, women and children. Marcy, 
Hunt, Pulte, and others have treated this subject so thoroughly in their 
works, that I shall cull from them very deliberately, and without limit. 
In taking this liberty, I hope I give them the credit they deserve. 

Congestive headache comes from determination of blood to the head ; 
and persons who make use of spirituous liquors, who lead a sedentary 
and studious life, who indulge freely at the table ; persons of much 
mental application, of sanguine nervous temperament, — are addicted to it. 

SYMPTOMS OF CONGESTIVE HEADACHE. 

The symptoms are : great throbbing of the arteries, pressure in the 
head, giddiness in stooping ; head aches mostly over the eyes ; the eyes 
feel big and painful, they cannot bear the light ; the face is flushed ; 
great heat in the head, particularly on the top ; motion aggravates the 
symptoms, the brain feels as if it would fall out ; cold feels grateful. 

It may be brought on by mental excitement, mental labor, close 
application, errors in diet, exposure to cold, fatigue, suppression of the 
menses, etc. 

Apply cloths wet in cold water, and renew them as soon as they get 
warm ; hot bricks to the feet, particularly if they are cold ; in severe 
cases, a mustard-poultice to the back of the neck. Vomiting relieves. 

A distressing form of the malady, occurring most frequently in liter- 
ary or professional men, and in delicate but intellectual females. It 
occurs most frequently in persons between the age of puberty and forty 
or fifty years. Some are peculiarly subject to it for a long series of years ; 
and many, though temporarily relieved by various modes of treatment, 
are never permanently cured. — Marcy & Hunt. 

It is common for sick-headache to commence in the morning, on wak- 
ing from a deep, unrefreshing sleep, after previous fatigue, mental 
excitement, or irregularity of diet. There is " disturbance of vision ; dull 
and distressingly oppressive pain of the head, centering in one temple, 
most frequently the left ; tenderness and fulness of the eye of the same 



MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 169 

side, extending across the forehead, and sometimes fixing itself over the 
inner corner of the eyebrow ; painful sensibility to light ; clammy and 
unpleasant taste in the mouth ; chilliness of the skin ; cold and moist 
hands and feet; pulse feeble; face pale." — Wright. 

u After the pain in the head and about the eye has become severe, 
sickness at the stomach begins, and is increased by every movement, 
especially raising up ; flatulence ; retching ; shuddering, and vomiting of 
the contents of the stomach, or of a thin, glairy fluid of an acrid, sour 
taste. Some of these attacks last six or twelve hours ; again, one, two, or 
three days." — Marcy & Hunt. 

" It is distinguished from neuralgia by the predominance of the 
gastric symptoms. It has none of the strict periodicity which belongs to 
the intermittent neuralgic disease of the head and eye." — Hartmann. It 
is distinguished from dyspeptic headache, by being more severe. 

HOW SLEEPLESSNESS IS CAUSED. 

Pregnant women of nervous temperament are often kept awake night 
after night without apparent cause. This is produced b} r the slightest 
mental excitement, or by the motions of the child ; again, by eating, or 
indulging in a cup of tea or coffee before retiring. Close confinement to 
one's room, and want of exercise, may also be the cause. This may be 
borne without inconvenience, provided the patient gets some few hours of 
sleep in the morning, and awakes refreshed. But, in some instances, the 
patient suffers severely ; does not sleep a minute ; becomes feverish, rest- 
less, and agitated ; she losses her appetite, and becomes weak and 
prostrated ; her mind begins now to suffer ; and she becomes fretful, 
whimsical, and even irrational. 

The principal causes of this distressing disorder being pointed out, it 
will not be difficult for the patient to obviate them. 

Although physiologists have divided abortions, or miscarriages, into 
classes, according to the period of pregnancy, for the sake of theoretic 
speculation, there is but one to the woman bearing child. The loss of the 
foetus (child) before its full time is to be called abortion, miscarriage, 
premature birth, or any other name chosen to designate that loss. 
It involves the same fact, the same risk, morally and physically. 
Classification may be of use to a physician ; but it has no import 
to the woman, except to deceive her. From the moment she conceives, 
she is mother to the creature, and contracts towards it all the moral duties 



170 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

which devolve upon her during any period of its life within or without 
the womb. 

The general condition of the mother necessarily increases or de- 
creases liability to abortion. Plethoric women addicted to profuse 
menstruations ; very impressible, nervous women, greatly excited by 
passion or mental disturbances ; women of sedentary habits, or those who 
indulge immoderately in the pleasures of society, dancing, late hours, 
tight lacing; women occupied at the sewing machine, or who carry 
weights to strain their back, or who expgse themselves to heated stoves 
in the kitchen, — are constantly exposed to this miskap. 

Acute diseases, particularly small-pox ; inflammation of the bowels • 
syphilis ; Asiatic cholera ; severe constipation ; hemorrhage ; diseases of 
the womb and ovaries ; inflammation of the bladder, vagina, and rectum, 
— are all predisposing causes. In periodical and habitual abortion, the 
cause may almost always be traced to some abnormality of the womb. 

SIGNS OF THE DEATH OF THE FCETUS. 

Death of the foetus is inevitably followed by abortion. The mother 
may transmit disease to the foetus. Children have been born with the 
small-pox, with intermittent or with yellow fever, after the mother had for 
some time recovered from it. An army officer and his wife had the yellow 
fever in Texas ; the husband died of it ; the wife recovered. She returned 
to Washington, and, after a few weeks, gave birth to an infant, apparently 
healthy. Six weeks after, as the child gave signs of restlessness, the 
mother got up to comfort it ; when, to her greatest horror, she recognized 
in the vomited ingesta of the child the fatal symptoms of yellow- fever. In 
twelve hours, the baby was dead. So, also, disease and death may take 
place in the child before it is born. 

The signs of the death of the foetus are : cessation of motion after 
quickening (this sign is an unsafe one to rely upon, however ; for the 
motion may have become so slight as to be imperceptible to the mother) ; 
the abdomen collapses ; the breasts shrink ; the woman experiences a 
sensation of weight in the loins, which may change locality in moving to 
different positions ; and a pressure in the lower part of the abdomen. 

As a general rule, the retention of a dead infant, even for some time, 
does not produce disastrous results to the mother. In time, it passes off; 
and if pregnancy is advanced, the breasts may swell with milk ; but they 
soon subside, and the regular order of health becomes re-established. 



MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 171 

A leap from a carriage, running down stairs, missing a step, falls, 
excessive fatigue, too frequent coition, severe contusions, may produce 
miscarriage. A blow on the abdomen may cause injury and death to the 
foetus. The severe jar or jolting of a carriage, a sudden fright, a fit of 
violent passion, have often produced abortion. 

Of the classifications of abortion, the consideration of miscarriage 
and premature birth is the only one that may be of use to the mother. 
Miscarriage is the term used for abortion of a child before the seventh 
month ; because it is not viable (that is, liable to live): after that period, 
abortion is called premature birth ; because the development of the child 
is such, that it can live out of its mother's womb. 

Miscarriages happen oftener at the third month of pregnancy ; but 
they occur often enough before and after. It is believed that at the third 
month it can occur with less danger to the mother ; still physicians know- 
that the danger increases with the advancement of pregnancy. It is also 
said that the infant is more likely to live if born at the seventh than at 
the eighth month, although there is no physiological reason for it. 

PERIODICAL HABITS OF THE WOMB. 

The womb is an organ of such periodical habits, that, when miscar- 
riage has happened once, it is apt to occur again, and at the same period 
of pregnancy. 

The writer has attended a lady during seven miscarriages ; each of 
which occurred, in spite of care and treatment, on the accomplishment of 
the third month, to the very day. The patient was hardly over one 
miscarriage before she became pregnant again ; thus depriving the womb 
of the rest and time necessary to recover from debility, and to enable it 
to carry its burdens for a much longer period. This fact illustrates the 
importance, for a woman addicted to miscarriage, of taking particular 
care of herself, and avoiding any exciting cause that may tend to disturb 
her womb at such periods ; for, if she goes beyond the limit of that time, 
she will probably be able to bear a child to its full term. 

The best mode to avert this periodical liability is for the woman to 
remain on her back for two weeks before, and two weeks after, such period. 

Having given the causes of abortion, it is useless to suggest the 
means to avert it. Common sense would lead the woman to avoid \i 
would endanger the life of her infant and her own life. For causes over 
which the woman has no control, she should consult her physician. 



172 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

When a woman has been subject to abortions, it is indispensable that she 
should not become pregnant for a year or two in order to give time to the 
womb to recover from its weakness. Moderation in everything should be 
her effort, to attain the dearest object of her life. There are premonitory, 
and actual, symptoms of abortion. The premonitory symptoms, which 
may occur several days before the actual symptoms set in, are : alternate 
sensations of chilliness and heat, nausea, thirst, lassitude, palpitations, 
cold extremities, pallor, depression of spirit ; the eyes look heavy and 
dull ; sensation of sinking at the stomach ; of weight near the anus and 
vagina ; pain in the loins ; ineffectual desire to pass water ; the breasts 
become soft and flaccid. 

These symptoms may occur singly or collectively, without indicating 
abortion ; yet, when a woman has had miscarriages before, she should 
not disregard these warnings. 

WHAT HAPPENS IN CHILD-BIRTH. 

The actual symptoms are, regular periodic pains with chills ; pains 
that start from the back, and run down the loins and the lower part of 
the abdomen ; pains that cause contraction of the womb, and bearing 
down. During each pain, the abdomen grows hard under the hand, and 
relaxes after the pain is gone ; a watery or bloody discharge exudes from 
the vagina, which is an indication that the membranes are detaching 
themselves from the womb. 

When such symptoms occur, and when blood, however little, 
discharges from the vagina, even without any other symptoms, it is imper- 
ative that the patient should confine herself to her bed, and maintain the 
most undisturbed quietude, morally and physically. A sudden vaginal 
flow of blood after a fall, ajar, a blow, or a shock to the nervous system, 
should be regarded as perilous in the extreme ; and the physician should 
be summoned without a moment's delay. 

Abortion is really inevitable only when the foetus has ceased to live, 
or when the separation of the after birth and membranes is so complete 
as to cut off all nourishment from the child. There are many instances 
recorded where the pains and bloody discharges seemed to make abortion 
inevitable ; yet those symptoms ceased, and the child went to its full 
term, and was born healthy and strong. 

Many of those symptoms may occur from diseases independent of 
pregnancy. Colic, diarrhoea, dysentery, will produce pains like labor- 



MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 173 

pains. Blood may ooze out of an nicer located in the mouth of the womb ; 
watery discharge may occur in certain forms of dropsies, etc. 

It has already been said that the danger increases as pregnancy 
advances. If the fcetus and after-birth have been expelled with but little 
hemorrhage at or after the occurrence, the mother may recover without 
any danger to herself; but, if some portions of the fcetus or after-birth are 
retained, they may either cause inflammation of the uterus, or pass off 
shortly afterwards in a putrified solution, unattended with any disturbance 
of the system, or go to the end of the term of pregnancy before being 
expelled. 

In criminal abortion, however, when violent mechanical or medicinal 
means have been used to produce miscarriage, the injuries to the womb 
may be of such a nature as to produce inflammation, fever, and death. 
This we shall consider more at length hereafter. 

REMEDIES FOR THREATENED ABORTION. 

In any and every case of threatened abortion, perfect rest and 
reclined position are absolutely necessary, sometimes for days, sometimes 
for months. The mind of the patient should be composed, and all inter- 
ference on the part of the nurse or friends excluded. Let her lie in a 
horizontal but easy position, on a spring or hair mattress, if possible. If 
she is inclined to " flood," give her cold drinks, iced lemonade, iced tea ; 
let her not move body or limbs. Give no stimulating or hot drinks. The 
coverings should be light and sufficient. The room, the house, in fact, 
should be quiet ; no hammering or stamping allowed. No good or bad 
news should be brought to her that could cause her a shock. Cheer her 
mind with hope. 

Society has established the custom, for the love of order and the good 
of all, that, in certain instances, it is dishonor for woman to bear a child. 
It is grievous that there is not more charity among men, particularly 
as they are all liable to err ; it is grievous that woman, the more unfortu- 
nate of the two sexes, should have to bear the whole brunt of her neigh- 
bor's scorn ; and it is grievous that woman should be the least inclined 
to extend the hand of sympathy to her fallen sister. These grievous 
wrongs give the strongest excuses that can be offered for daring to 
slay the unborn child. Still, the laws of God and the laws of man 
are explicit against the inducement of abortion ; and the duty of the 
physician is to save, not to kill. 



174 MALADIES DURING PREGNANCY. 

Poverty, widowhood, desertion, nor any thing, in fact, is a reason 
to justify the avoidance of those laws. Charity is a godly gift, and 
should be practiced by frail humanity ; but sympathy has nothing to do 
with the violation of law. Towards God, enforced abortion is a sin ; 
towards mankind, it is a crime. 

All civilized nations have recognized the true nature of this crime, 
and have promulgated laws to bring the perpetrators to severe punish- 
ment. In some countries, and even in some of our States, they make the 
unwarrantable fetal distinction of quick, and not quick ; in others, they 
make no such unphysiological distinction, and punish the mother not only, 
but all those who directly or indirectly connive at and abet the attempt or 
accomplishment of the act. The wife, the husband, the doctor, the apothe- 
cary, the nurse, are liable to imprisonment and fine, if accessory to 
abortion. 

In Scotland, if a person gives a potion to produce abortion, and 
the woman dies in consequence, it is murder. In Austria, the perpe- 
trator of this crime is punishable by imprisonment not less than fifteen, 
nor more than thirty years; and is subject to be condemned to hard 
labor on the public works. When the father is an accessory, his 
punishment is greater. 

In this country, our legislatures are not behind the most civilized 
countries. Although they differ in the construction of their statutes 
against abortion, they all acknowledge the crime, and have promulgated 
laws for the punishment of direct and indirect offenders. 

The legislatures of the various States, however, should revise their 
statutes in regard to this crime, and insert the following recommendation 
of The Suffolk District Medical Society of Massachusetts : — 

" Whoever, with intent to cause and procure the miscarriage of a 
woman, shall sell, give, or administer to her, prescribe for her, or advise 
or direct or cause or procure her to take, any medicine or drugs or 
substance whatever, with the like intent, unless the same shall have been 
necessary to preserve the life of such a woman or of her unborn child, 
and shall have been so pronounced (in consultation) by two competent 
physicians ; and any person, with the like intent, knowingly aiding and 
assisting such offender or offenders, — shall be guilty of felony, etc.: and 
if such offence shall have been committed by a physician or surgeon, or 
person claiming to be such, or by a midwife, nurse, or druggist, such 
punishment may be increased at the discretion of the court." 




CHAPTER XV. 

WOMAN with child would find it 
greatly to her advantage, and con- 
ducive to her health and happiness, 
to employ her leisure hours in the 
preparation of the necessary articles of clothing for herself and her 
coming baby. As many seem really ignorant of what is necessary, I 
name some few of the articles which she will absolutely need. These 
will naturally suggest others to women accustomed to the convenience of 
plentiful supplies. 

Articles needed by the mother are : Six cotton chemises, six cotton 
night-dresses, short night dresses are preferable ; six unbleached cotton 
bandages, one yard and a half long ; two flannel shirts, one flannel dress- 
ing-gown, to wear on getting up ; three dozen napkins ; these may be 
made from old table damask, rendered soft by use ; one dozen common 
face-towels. 

Articles needed by the child are : Eight belly-bands of infants' flan- 
nel ; four of them one quarter of a yard wide and five-eighths long, and the 
other four not quite so wide, for earlier use; four dozen diapers; four 
flannel barricoats with muslin bodies, left open like an apron ; one dozen 
linen-cambric shirts, to be worn over the belly band ; six muslin night 
slips, one yard long ; two flannel skirts, of two breadths each ; six pairs 
knit socks ; two blankets of fine flannel or merino, one yard square, 
bound with ribbon, for a shawl. One baby-basket, containing : a box ot 
rice-flour powder ; one powder-puff; one cake of old, white Castile soap; 
pieces of old handkerchiefs, to be used in dressing the naval ; one box of 
cold-cream ; one fine sponge ; one paper of large, one of small pins ; one 
pair of sharp, round-pointed scissors. A complete suit oi baby clothes 
should be in it at the time needed. 

Strange as it may appear, it is often the case, that, while attending- a 

175 



176 LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 

woman in labor, the physician finds no provision of the most necessary- 
articles, creating a delay and confusion. Some women are so indolent, 
that they put off these preparations until the time overtakes them quite 
unprepared. 

Among the lower classes of women in Italy, it is customary to raise 
a chicken for the mother, and save money for the doctor's fee. A most 
philosophical plan ! Nine months will make a good chicken, that will 
yield rich broth for a debilitated parturient. The doctor's fee is quite as 
necessary for him. In this country, a great deal of unnecessary flum- 
mery is often gotten up for the child, very often forgetting the chicken, 
and the physician's need. 

By the term monthly nurse is meant a woman experienced in attend- 
ing confinements, and capable of assuming the care of a baby, and of 
the parturient, for a month from the commencement of labor. 

A MONTHLY NURSE. 

In some countries these nurses are educated for the purpose, and are 
even capable of exercising all the duties belonging to a midwife. In this 
country it is not so. Women actually prefer a male accoucheur to a 
female. They feel safer in his hands ; they rely not only on his superior 
knowledge, but upon his courage. They feel he would not flinch before 
duty, and would assume the greatest responsibility to save life. It is not 
generally so with female accoucheurs, allowing very honorable excep- 
tions. I know of many cases where the female accoucheur, getting 
frightened, deserted her patient at the moment she was most needed ; 
thus sacrificing a life that might otherwise have been saved. 

But I am speaking of a monthly nurse. She should be intelligent, 
and have experience ; yet she should not be presumptive, and should 
never be allowed to exercise duties not within her province. 

A nurse is necessarily a servant ; and I, for my part, never want her 
to be anything else. I want her to have intelligence enough to carry out 
my orders, and no more. Has she learnt anything from other physicians 
or other people ; let her keep that knowledge to herself as long as there 
is a physician attending who is responsible for the case. 

The monthly nurse should be a judicious, unobtrusive, well-tempered 
woman. She should know the care the patient needs ; she should admin- 
ister to her comfort, but not attempt to entertain her with stories or 
gossips of any kind ; she should carry out the wishes of the physician 




THE MOTHER'S CHARGE 



THERE IS NO OCCUPATION TO COMPARE WITH THAT OF MOULDING THE LIFE 

OF A CHILD. 




THE MOTHER'S JOY. 



THE WOMAN WHO FAITHFULLY ASSUMES THE DUTIES OF MOTHERHOOD IS DOING THE 
GREATEST WORK IN WHICH HUMAN SKILL AND POWER CAN BE EMPLOYED. 




THE BABY'S MORNING BATH. 

FRICTIONS AND BATHING ARE HEALTHFUL TO THE SKIN AT EVERY TIME OF LIFE, 
BUT PARTICULARLY DURING CHILDHOOD. 




A MOTHER'S LOVE. 

WHAT IS MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN A MOTHER'S LOVE? 
"WHO RAN TO HELP ME WHEN I FELL 
AND WOULD SOME PRETTY STORY TELL, 
OR KISS THE PLACE TO MAKE IT WELL? 
MY MOTHER." 




LADIES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 




VARIOUS MODES OF DRESSING THE HAIR, 




LOVE'S FIRST AWAKENING. 



'HE STRONGEST OF Al.l. HUMAN EMOTION! 




PREPARED FOR OPEN AIR EXERCISE. 

EXERCISE FOR DEVELOPING SUPPLENESS AND SYMMETRY. 



LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 177 

conscientiously, but never remonstrate on her own account, with the 
patient ; she should acquaint the physician with every irregularity with- 
out exaggeration, and never undertake, under the assumption that it will 
do no harm, to administer favorite lotions or potions to the patient or to 
the child. 

In the house, she should not be a source of trouble. I have known 
nurses to demand so much attention from the house-servants as to be 
unbearable. Some nurses assume rights and authority over the patient 
and the husband. Take my advice : such a woman, being a nuisance, 
should be paid and sent off. 

If the parturient is worried by the nurse, she should inform her 
physician without delay. I have known patients that were so intimidated 
by the nurse as to be afraid to mention this fact to physician or 
husband, and would, consequently, go from day to day, sick without an 
appreciable cause. 

PROTEST FROM THE HUSBAND. 

In this case, let the husband take the matter in his own hands, and 
let him protest against such conduct ; if this be vain, let him invite the 
woman out of the sick-room and deliberately inform her that she must 
leave the house. Having gone thus far, she should not, under any 
pretext whatsoever, be allowed to enter that room before leaving ; for, 
with truly revengeful spirit, she may make a scene that will greatly affect 
the condition of the wife. It may be thought that I concern myself 
entirely too much about these nurses. Not so. Any one w r ho has had 
experience with them will tell you that every young mother or husband 
needs all these cautions. 

Nurses have their favorite doctors ; and those are they who employ 
them the oftenest. When they are engaged where their favorite is not in 
attendance, they are sometimes given to talking disparagingly of the one 
who has the case in hand, and praising others ; they have even been 
known to improvise facts and stories that bear against his character, or 
his skill as a physician. When this is the case, do not hesitate to silence 
them at once, and then watch them closely ; for, to prove themselves 
right, they are possibly capable of injuring you or your child. If the 
nurse feeds the child by hand, see that she puts no powder in the milk, 
although she may tell you it is only a little soda, to prevent flatulence. 

The room should be a spacious and well-ventilated one. If possible, 
12 



178 LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 

it should have a southern exposure. Let it be remote from the noise of 
the street or the house. If there is a bath or dressing room attached to it, 
so much the better. Keep no soiled clothes in it during sickness. One 
bed, one washstand, wardrobe, bureau, and two or three chairs, is all the 
furniture needed ; any more would be in the way, unless the room is 
unusually large. 

The bed should be a double one, in good order, on castors. The 
spring mattress is the best ; hair and cotton come next. Feather- 
mattresses are inconvenient, too warm, and should be avoided. The 
sheets should be of cotton, unless it is in the midst of summer, or in a 
hot climate. During labor, the patient should lie on the right side of the 
bed. This position will place the patient on the right side of the physi- 
cian. Attention to this will prevent a change of side when the physician 

arrives. 

HOW TO PREPARE THE BED. 

For labor, the bed should be prepared as follows : Fold the lower 
sheet so that it will not come below the waist of the patient, with the 
end toward the hips, so that it can be grasped and pulled down after 
delivery. 

Cover the mattress, from the waist down, with an impervious 
material, — a piece of India-rubber or oil-cloth. Over it place a thick 
cover — a blanket or sheet folded several times — to absorb the discharges. 
Replace the bed-covers as though the bed had been made up as ordinarily. 
To the foot-board — against which the feet should be fixed during expul- 
sive pains — attach a long towel, twisted, that the patient may grasp it 
during strong bearing-down pains. 

Accommodations for the physician consist of a chair to sit upon, 
some lard or sweet-oil to lubricate his hands and the soft parts of the 
mother, several towels, cold and warm water, and soap. 

Articles needed during labor consist of a cord made of twisted linen 
thread ; a pair of sharp-edged but blunt-ended scissors ; a paper of large, 
sharp-pointed pins ; a square yard of soft flannel, or some suitable 
material, to envelop the child when born ; a bandage for the mother ; an 
abundant supply of warm water ; some suitable stimulant, as camphor, 
cologne, or aromatic spirits of ammonia ; one dozen towels and napkins ; 
a fine sponge ; a vessel under the bed to receive the after-birth. 

Although some physicians split hairs about the bandage, and some 
assume even that the patient can do better without it, I cannot but recom- 



LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 179 

mend the use of it. The bracing up of the collapsed abdomen gives such 

a feeling of comfort, that that alone would recommend it, as, in ordinary 

cases, enabling the mother to move about the bed without feeling that she 

is going to fall to pieces. Besides, I know cases where the abdomen never 

contracted, from want of this support ; and the woman had to bear a 

pendulous abdomen ever after, to her great discomfort and annoyance. 

And I never knew or heard of an instance where the bandage, properly 

applied, had caused unpleasant or dangerous results. Of course, as in all 

things in this world, there is a way to do it right, another to doit wrong : 

even a feather, in the hands of an ignoramous may prove a fatal weapon. 

If the bandage be put on snugly, with no undue pressure exerted, so as to 

obstruct the circulation, none of the far-fetched maladies will result from 

the application. 

A great deal is said about the shape of a bandage. For my part, a towel 

long enough to go around the body I have always found to answer every 

purpose ; some, however, prefer to have it so shaped as to fit the curves of 

the body. It should be wide enough, at all events, to cover the whole 

abdomen. 

NOTIFYING THE PHYSICIAN AND NURSE. 

When to send for physician and nurse requires some judgment ; for 
it is very hard on a physician, fatigued by a severe day's labor, to be 
suddenly awakened from his sleep, and requested to relinquish his rest 
and go to a patient, only to find that it is all a false alarm. I speak 
feelingly on this subject. Physicians appreciate the anxieties of a woman, 
who, being conscious that her term is near completion, feels pains flitting 
about her abdomen ; and they are willing to go to her, were it only to 
calm her apprehensions : still, some consideration is also expected on her 
part. He, like other mortals, has only one life to live, the preservation 
of which requires the same rest and the same peace that others enjoy. 

On the completion of her eighth month, the woman is liable to be 
overtaken by pains simulating labor. These pains are probably caused 
by the womb's attempt to adapt itself to its enlarged condition and posi- 
tion. A few hours of complete rest will often make these pains disappear 
without further trouble. When a woman, however, has reached her full 
term, she may suddenly awake one night to find herself in labor. Still, 
let her remember that labor is very rarely an instantaneous process. 
There are preparing pains, and many are they, before the actual presence 
of the physician is necessary. 



180 



LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 



Pains coming at regular intervals, commencing in the back, and 
running down the loins, causing the womb to harden under the hand, and 
to relax after the pain is gone, should be considered labor-pains. When 
these pains are accompanied by a serious bloody discharge, there can be no 
doubt that labor has commenced. As long as the paius do not return 
oftener than every fifteen minutes, the physician need not be summoned, 
if it is night. The nurse should be sent for, however, without delay. 

When the intervals are 
gradually getting shorter, 
until they are no longer 
than five minutes apart, 
the physician should be 
summoned. The physi- 
cian's attendance should 
also be immediately re- 
quired after the breaking 
of the bag of waters. 
This may happen sud- 
denly, without giving any 
premonitory symptoms. 

When the symptoms of 
labor occur during the 
day, the physician should 
be informed of the fact 
without delay ; for he 
may find it convenient to 
call, and ascertain for 
himself the condition of 
things. If early in the 
morning, let him know it before he leaves his office, lest he cannot be 
found *vhen he is wanted later in the day. A sudden gush of blood, or a 
continuous stream of it, should warn the patient, or the attendants, to 
have the physician instantly, and, if the regular family attendant is not 
to be found, the nearest doctor should be brought to the spot. In case 
the stream of blood is continuous 'and alarming, fill up the vagina with a 
sponge, and keep the patient quiet on her back until the physician 
arrives. 

Labor is the inevitable and physiological consequence of pregnancy. 




UMBILICAL CORD. 



PLACENTA 



THE CHILD, PLACENTA AND UMBILICAL CORD. 
AFTER AFTERBIRTH. 



LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 181 

It is a process of pain and suffering. It is a process that requires all the 
moral courage and fortitude a woman is capable of. The woman who bears 
a child to her husband performs an act which his lifelong love and kind- 
ness could not repay. The woman who bears a child to the State gives 
the legislator to mould the nation, the general to defend her honor, the 
admiral to span the oceans. The woman who bears a child to her God is 
an imitator of His creation, and will glory in the light of His love. 

Woman is the re-creator and the nurse of mankind. Her sufferings 
in giving birth to her offspring, her self-abnegation in raising and educat- 
ing it, commands man's respect, his admiration, his love, his gratitude. 
Beautiful in love, sympathetic in sorrow, she governs his affections, and 
assuages his pains. 

In the throes of labor, she is heroical. On the life of her infant, she 
sheds tears of joy. In the tenderness of a newly-made mother, she forgets 
her pains. Her lips whisper thanks to her God ; her eyes look with a 
triumphant joy upon her husband. No wonder man loves his mother! 
If a mother never did anything but give birth to her son, he should love 
her and be grateful to her forever. 

THE TWO STAGES OF LABOR. 

During the last fortnight of pregnancy, the abdominal tumor sub- 
sides, so that pressure is taken off from the lungs, heart, and stomach, 
and the woman feels more buoyant, freer, and more comfortable. The 
pressure, however, is brought downwards by the descent of the womb, 
causing, often, a desire to void urine, and sometimes, even with an ina- 
bility of doing so. 

Labor may be divided into two stages : the first constituting the 
process of dilatation of the mouth of the womb ; the second, the 
process of expulsion of the child from the interior of the mother. 

During the first stage, the parts become humid : a discharge of 
watery blood, " the show," occurs ; intermittent, regular, and periodical 
pains come on, each ushered in by shiverings. This stage of preparation 
occupies five-sixths of the duration of labor. The fibres of the womb 
contract, and its mouth dilates, at every pain. 

During this stage, it is evident that there is nothing to be done but 
to patiently wait. The mother should make no expulsive efforts : on 
the contrary, she should save her strength for the second stage, when the 
child escapes from the womb, and is pressing hard against the soft parts. 



182 LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 

She may walk the room or sit in a chair alternately : the first will 
assist in the expansion of the mouth of the womb by the pressure of the 
weight against it ; the second will shorten her confined position in bed, 
which may become very tiresome if the labor is slow. The patient 
should know, that, during this stage, there is no accident to apprehend ; 
her mind should be at ease and hopeful. 

During these contracting pains, she may become nauseated, and may 
even vomit. This condition is considered favorable, because it relaxes 
the system. She need not have any fear or anxiety if this stage is rather 
long ; for it may depend upon the rigidity of the mouth of the uterus, 
which will yield in proper time. Anxiety will only tend to diminish the 
force of her pains, and render labor longer and more tedious. She 
should dispel every imaginary dread that she will not get through ; for 
nine hundred and ninety pregnant women in a thousand have suffered 
like herself, and have gone to the end with perfect safety to themselves 
and their offspring. 

MEDICAL TREATMENT NECESSARY. 

She should not resist any inclination to move her bowels, or to pass 
urine : on the contrary, she should encourage both, as the discharges 
will give her relief, and make the exit of the child easier. It has even 
been customary to have the bowels moved by a cathartic, and in case the 
patient should be in the least constipated, I do not deem it objectionable 
in the least. 

During this stage, if her physician is not present, she should be 
examined now and then by the nurse, in order to know the progress 
made in the dilatation of the mouth of the womb. If, after every five or 
six pains, no progress is detected, there should be no hurry in summon- 
ing the physician. When, however, the mouth of the womb is so 
expanded as to be of the size of a silver dollar, the physician should be 
present. 

To make an examination, place the patient on her left side with 
knees drawn up. The nurse lubricates with oil or lard the index finger 
of her right hand, introduces it into the vagina, running it upwards and 
backward in the direction of the spine. When she reaches the tumor, let 
her feel for an opening in the membrane that covers the child. If she is 
in doubt whether her finger is then in the mouth of the womb, let her 
keep it within until a pain comes on, and, if the finger is within the 



LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 183 

womb, she will feel the mouth contract around it like the string of a 
purse. She can then detect the size of the opening. When the womb is 
relaxed, she may confound the thin mouth of the womb with folds of the 
vagina, but not so when it is in a state of contraction. 

The mouth of the womb is sometimes difficult to find, because it lies 
backward, and high up. 

The examiner should not be satisfied until it has been found, and 
its dimension fairly measured. Care should be taken, during these exam- 
inations, not to press too hard against the tumor, lest the bag of waters 
should be broken. The waters, enclosed in an elastic bag around the 
head of the child, assist in expanding the mouth of the womb. This bag 
of waters generally breaks spontaneously during a violent pain. When 
it breaks in the beginning, it constitutes what is called " dry labor," 
which may last longer on account of the absence of the assistance spoken 
of. It usually breaks in the second stage, although it may do so at any 
time, particularly if the pains are strong, and the membrane weak. 

The mother should be made acquainted with the existence and the 
necessary bursting of this bag, lest she should be frightened at a sudden 
and unexpected gush of so much water. 

COMPANY TO BE EXCLUDED. 

Admit no one to the room except the nurse or a female friend 
requested by herself. Under no circumstance, permit idle curiosity to 
peer into that room. Keep out officious women whose services are not 
needed. Stop every conversation regarding hard labors, or accidents 
happened to other parturients. This is imperative. Physicians know, to 
their regret, how many labors have been kept lingering by the influence 
of these mischievous conversations on the mind of the patient. 

The husband should bear himself manfully ; and, in his expressions 
of love and sympathy, he should not show that he is harrowed by a 
feeling of anxiety and the fear that the case may not terminate well. 

Before the commencement of the second stage, the patient's dress 
should be so adjusted that it need not be soiled. Her chemise should be 
folded up around her waist, and the bandage to be used after delivery 
pinned around it. This will secure the chemise, and, at the same time, 
leave the bandage ready to be brought down, without moving the patient 
after delivery. Below this may be put a flannel skirt, or a small sheet 
folded, which will cover the patient, and protect the clothing above. 



184 LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 

This simple precaution will prevent the necessity of changing her 
linen after delivery ; a process which may be dangerous, in proportion to 
the condition of the patient. 

The mouth of the womb having dilated during the first stage, and 
the child being now bearing down upon the soft parts of the mother, the 
patient has a strong desire to make expulsive efforts. This should now 
be encouraged. When she feels a pain coming on, she should draw a 
long inspiration, and then, holding her breath, bear down with all her 
strength. Restrain her from making exclamations during the pains, 
and urge her not to relinquish the downward pressure she ought to exert. 
If she complains of her back, press gently with your hand against it. 

During these pains, she may become very much excited and even 
talk incoherently. Re-assure her, by telling her that she is now near the 
end of her troubles. Encourage her to rest between her pains, and main- 
tain her position on her left side. Place a pillow between her knees, 
which should be bent, and let her feet press against the foot-board. 

DIRECTIONS TO BE OBSERVED. 

Take a napkin, and press gently between the vagina and the rectum 
during the pains ; not enough, however, to prevent the descent of the 
child, but to prevent a possible rupture of the soft parts. If her exer- 
tions cause her to perspire, dry her face with a handkerchief, or fan her a 
little ; if she is faint, give her volatile-salts or cologne to smell. Should 
the pains subside, and become weaker during this stage, give her a cup 
of hot tea. 

This stage, sometimes, is very short. Many instances have occurred 
in my practice, particularly amongst healthy and strong women, where it 
consisted of one pain, prolonged until the child was expelled. With 
some women, it requires several pains, particularly when the parts are 
rigid. Encourage patience. In cases where the infant's head is very 
large, or the outlet of the mother rather narrow, the head is to be 
moulded, as it were, to the proper proportions, and the resistance will 
cause some delay. 

It is during these pains, that she should pull at a towel fixed to the 
bed or in the hands of an attendant. The patient should not be discour- 
aged if several severe pains, at this stage, do not cause the child to be 
born. As long as the presentation is right she need have no fear for the 
result, even if no physician be present. 



LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 



185 



When labor has really commenced, the most important point to 
ascertain is the presentation. The term " presentation " refers to the 
part of the child that presents itself to the month of the womb. Physi- 
cians divide presentation into classes, and the classes into positions, until 
they have reached a rather confusing number. For the practical purpose 
of an unprofessional attendant, four only are important, — head, foot, 
breech, and hand presentation ; the first three constituting natural 
presentations, from the fact that they do not offer difficulties, and the 
latter, preternatural, because 
it offers serious difficulties to 
labor. 

The presentation can 
easily be detected by intro- 
ducing the index finger into 
the vagina as far as the womb, 
when, if the head presents 
itself, a hard, round tumor 
will be felt within the mouth 
of the womb. This presenta- 
tion may be confounded with 
the breech, for that also is 
round, and almost of the same 
diameter; but in the latter, 
there is a feeling of elasticity, 
given by the fleshy buttock, 
that cannot be mistaken. Be- 
sides, by thrusting the finger F(ETAL surface of the placenta (afterbirth.) 
a little higher, and feeling carefully around, the protrusions of the 
vertebrae of the spine, or the division of the limbs and the genital 
organs, can be discovered. 

How and when to cut the cord. Having \ 7 our string and scissors at 
hand, as soon as the cord ceases pulsating, tie a cord about it, an inch 
and a half from the naval ; then put another ligature two inches from 
that, and cut between them. Then take a soft napkin, and wrap it around 
the child, so that, in its slimy condition, it may not slip from the hands : 
and place it in a smooth blanket in a safe place. 

Sometimes the womb, being rid of the greatest part of its contents, 
remains inactive, and suffers the placenta (after birth) to remain for a 




186 LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 

time. In this case, gentle frictions should be made on the abdomen, and 
the womb gently pressed, so as to excite contractions. Should you, by 
accident, separate the cord from the placenta, and after waiting twenty or 
thirty minutes, during which several pains may occur, the placenta not 
being passed out, introduce your hand, formed in conical shape, into the 
vagina, hook your fingers in the spongy placenta, and gently pull it out. 
If the child gives a hearty cry, you may be sure it is all right. If 
it is evidently breathing at all, as the vast majority of new-born infants 
are, there is no further serious trouble to be looked for on that score ; but 
if it remains still, and gives no sign of life, it will require immediate 
attention. Some authors recommend not to cut the cord until respiration 
is fairly established. But this connection should exist only as long as 
the cord is pulsating : when that ceases, the cord should be cut, lest the 
placenta act like an instrument of suction, and withdraws blood from the 
child. 

WHY THE CHILD SOMETIMES DOES NOT BREATHE. 

The unbreathing condition of the child may be caused by mucus 
filling its mouth : care should be taken, therefore, to clear it as soon as 
born, by wiping the mouth with a finger wrapped in the corner of a soft 
handkerchief. Then sprinkle cold water on its face and body : the shock 
thus given may awaken the dormant vitality. Should this be not suffi- 
cient, alternate the sprinkling of cold water with immersion in warm 
water. This alternate of heat and cold may be repeated several times. 
Should this not succeed, take a towel wet in cold water, and with a corner 
of it strike the child vigorously on the chest, back and head. 

Do not give up in discouragement, even if the child does not breathe 
for half an hour. There are instances in which children have been 
brought to life after an inconceivable length of time, and after many 
attempts to make them breathe. 

Immediately after delivery, the patient, passing from a state of 
tension to a state of relaxation, is often taken by a nervous chill : so do 
not expose her surface to the air unnecessarily ; and, if the chill comes, 
cover her up until reaction has set in, and she feels warmer. 

Do not allow her, under any circumstance, to help herself; gently 
and steadily pull from under her the soiled cloths and garments ; then 
draw down the bandage, and pin it snugly around her ; pull down her 
dress., and cover her warmly. Apply a soft napkin to the vulva. Should the 






LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT.. 187 

soft parts be very sore, they may be bathed with tepid water, medicated 
with tincture of arnica. 

If a physician has been in attendance, after his departure leave the 
patient to repose, and let no overscrupulously cleanly person interfere. 
Too much intermeddling is the cause of severe after-pains, or of more or 
less dangerous flooding. If the patient be allowed to sit upright, the 
blood will accumulate again in the uterine veins, distend them, and cause 
coagulations of blood that will induce violent after-pains ; and if the blood 
does not coagulate, but flows away, it will produce the most violent and 
dangerous flooding. The patient is thus exposed to the risk of her life at 
a time when every moment of repose is of the highest value to her. 

After the mother has had some rest, and the child is dressed, it should 
be presented to the mother. She will look with pride on her offspring ; 
and the joy caused by the first sight of her babe will act beneficially on 
her mind and system. Allow the mother then to tender the breast to her 
baby. The first flow of milk is the first medicine that the child receives. 
It is a natural laxative, to clear its bowels from the meconium, which is a 
dark mucilaginous matter. The act of nursing stimulates the breasts, 
and the reflex action stimulates the womb to healthy contraction. Threat- 
ened hemorrhage has been suspended by this act. 

TREATMENT OF THE NEW-BORN BABE. 

If the mother is strong, the baby may be allowed to draw from 
the nipple for several minutes ; but if the mother be nervous and irrit- 
able, and the efforts of nursing cause violent contractions of the womb, 
it should be taken from her and placed in a soft warm bed. If the 
child cries, and is restless after this, as if it were hungry, a few drops 
of sugared water may be given it. Keep the room darkened, and do 
not turn the child's eyes to the light. The room should have ventila- 
tion by allowing open a door that communicates with another room, 
but no draught. 

The birth of a child is a source of joy and excitement in a house- 
hold. Every member is impressed with the desire to run and congratu- 
late the mother. This should be allowed only after the mother has 
had rest, and gives sure signs that she is in good condition. Let HO 
one, in an outburst of joy, jump at her, but let them approach her 
calmly and happily. A great joy may be changed into a great sorrow- 
by not adhering to these rules.* 



188 LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 

Lochia is the name applied to the matters that escape from the 
genital organs of the mother after the delivery of the secundines (after- 
birth and membranes) . They play a very important part in the welfare 
of the patient, and should be carefully noticed. While it is very variable 
in quantity in different cases, and even in the same patient at different 
times after delivery, it may, perhaps, be taken for an average that she will 
have occasion to employ the nurse to remove six napkins, well filled, 
during the first six hours, four during the second, two in the third, and 
one in the last six of the twenty-four hours after delivery. She will 
probably require, on an average, a napkin every six hours. 

These discharges change also in quality. While in the first six 
hours they may be composed of pure blood, later they become more and 
more watery, which can be detected by the yellowish hue they assume, and 
by the paleness of their color, until after the sixth day, when the 
color of blood has almost entirely disappeared. The lochial discharge is 
apt to be more copious in women who have borne many children, who have 
been subject to profuse menstruations, and who have been addicted to 
stimulants and rich diet. 

DANGER OF MILK FEVER. 

A sudden cessation of these discharges before the twelfth day is of 
sufficient importance to apprise the physician without delay. The conse- 
quences may be serious. The milk fever has the effect of greatly 
lessening these discharges ; but, as soon as lactation is established, they 
should re-assume their previous vigor. 

If the sanguineous lochia is produced far beyomd the usual term, it 
may be an indication of inflammation of the womb, of some lesions of the 
parts, or of careless mismanagement in diet or regimen. Inform your 
physician of it. In some instances, these discharges persist on account 
of general debility, and assume an exceedingly disagreeable odor. 

To bring them on after suppression, apply moist and warm applica- 
tions to the vulva ; also injections of infusion of Chamomile Flowers, 
warm. 

The propriety of using chloroform in midwifery has been very much 
debated among medical men ; and, while some use it without fear, others 
would not give it under the most pressing circumstances. In this question, 
however, it is experience that must decide. Those who would not try it 
under any consideration will hardly have an opportunity to know its 



LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 189 

success ; hence their judgment is rather the offspring of prejudice. Many 
have tested the practice, and bear testimonials in favor of it. Prof. Simp- 
son of Edinburgh states, that, in many thousand cases of labor in which 
chloroform has been administered, not one case of accident has been 
recorded. To this testimony, I must add my mite of confirmation, 
although I never administer it unless requested by the patient and the 
husband to do so. 

J. M. Ward, Professor of Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence, in his 
valuable monograph on " Chloroform in Midwifery," says, "It is not 
necessary in midwifery to induce a full and perfect state of etherization } 
except when an operation upon the mother is necessary. The object, in 
simply severe labor, is to moderate or diminish the suffering. So true is 
this in practice, that cases are constantly occurring, in which etherization 
is induced, and the patient herself determines the extent to which it shall 
be carried, by a partial or perfect inhalation of the anaesthetic. 

THE USE OF CHLOROFORM. 

" In the intervals of uterine contraction, the instrument is removed 
by the patient, or by her direction given in some way, and which is at 
once understood. She knows when the pain is coming on, and demands 
the inhaler. She graduates the supply, so to speak, to the demand ; and 
in this way is presented to the observation of the practitioner one of the 
most important and interesting agencies in operation for relieving suffering* 
which he ever observes. 

" Patients of delicate nervous temperament often suffer severely from 
nervous agitation. Great nervous excitement marks the first stage of 
labor, and sometimes continues through the whole period of parturition in 
females of such a temperament. A degree of nervous apprehension 
marks the commencement of each pain : they feel their pains most acutely, 
lose all control of the will, and express their suffering in the most heart- 
rending manner. To such conditions of system, chloroform seems to be 
so admirably adapted as often to act like a charm in dissipating the 
patient's suffering, and when the system is but partially brought under 
its influence, to fortify it by soothing the nervous system. 

"It checks those irregular and spasmodic pains which retard the 
proper expulsive efforts, and by taking off the resistance which the will 
offers to the contractive pains, shortens materially the duration of 
labor. Chloroform, unquestionably, is the most reliable remedy for 



190 LABOR AND ITS PROPER TREATMENT. 

taking away the anguish and distress, which often proceed to such an 
extremity of suffering as seems unendurable by the patient, and saves, 
too, the practitioner and friends from the pain of witnessing those 
struggles and that agony which often completely unnerve them. 

" This suspension of muscular action and muscular resistance saves 
the patient from the exhaustion attendant upon ordinary labor, and en- 
ables her sooner to recover from the effects of labor upon the system ; 
protects her from the shock the nervous system sustains, as well as the 
soreness so common from the strain of the muscles ; and inasmuch as the 
patient is saved from exhaustion, so is she from the diseases of the puer- 
peral state dependent upon the exhaustion of nervous power. Hence we 
are warranted in saying, chloroform not only saves the patient from the 
pains of labor, but, measurably, from the perils of childbirth." 

Chloroform, however, should never be administered to patients who 
have been affected by diseases of the heart or the brain, or who are then 
suffering from asthma, and disease of the lungs. 

MEDICAL SKILL INDISPENSABLE. 

It should be administered by a skilful medical man, and practi- 
tioners, except in cases where there is necessity of an operation, should 
not offer the administration of chloroform : they should only act upon the 
request of the parturient and the husband. The chloroform should be of 
the purest kind : it should be obtained from the most reliable apothecary. 

In the administration of it, care should be taken not to debar the 
patient entirely from the inhalation of air. This can be done by rolling 
a napkin in a cornucopia shape ; put within it a small sponge impreg- 
nated with chloroform. The cornucopia is then applied between the 
nostrils and the upper lip, leaving thus the mouth free to inspire atmos- 
pheric air. From one to two minutes will be required to produce a 
sensible effect on the patient. This is done a little before the pain com- 
mences, and is discontinued as soon as it is evident that she is indifferent 
to the pain, or as soon as the pain is gone. 

It should be administered on an empty stomach ; and, if the effect is 
bad, a little wine, brandy, camphor, or aromatic spirits of ammonia, can 
be administered. Let there be plenty of air in the room and around the 
patient, and fan her between the periods of administration of chloroform. 







^SE^Z&frFt&te^^ 



LACTATION, 



OR 



FOOD FOR INFANTS. 



«rff¥ to? 




^m^g wgpp 



CHAPTER XVI 




HE most important function for the welfare of the mother 
and the life of her baby after delivery is the natural 
mode of feeding. The process of the formation of 
milk in the female breast during her lying-in state is 
called the " milk-fever." Although a truly natural 
and normal process, it does not occur without creating 
some disturbance in the woman's system. Imme- 
diately after delivery, the breasts yield, on suction, a 
liquid of a yellowish color, and of a sweetish taste, 
called in medical parlance, " colostrum." This milk 
seems to act like a gentle and necessary purgative on 
the child. For twenty-four hours, it retains these 
qualities, when it becomes whiter, and of different consistency. 

Forty-eight hours after delivery, the breasts begin to swell ; and this 
change is attended by a slight chill, thirst, and perhaps headache; this state 
is followed by heat, dryness of the skin, which is succeeded in a few hours 
by a copious perspiration. The fever lasts from twelve to forty-eight 
hours, sometimes even three or four days. 

During this febrile condition, the enlargement of the breasts 
increases, until, in some cases, the distention is so great as to become 
exceedingly painful, and even to invade the armpits, which prevents the 
bringing-down of the arms alongside of the body. 

This distention of the breasts should be relieved by the suction o( the 
child ; and in cases where the nipples are so drawn in that the child's lips 
cannot grasp them, or where the child is so weak that its attempts fail in 
drawing any milk, or do not draw sufficiently to relieve the breasts, the 
nurse, or an older or stronger child, should be applied to the breasts. 
Some nurses are very skillful in thus emptying the breasts by the suction 
of their own lips. Should not this be obtainable, and should the milk 
increase so fast as to apprehend an incursion of inflammation, a breast 

191 



192 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 






puinp should be used ; and, should even that be not at hand, a young pup 
will perform the needful act very satisfactorily. 

The best breast-pump is that which is made partly of glass, and 
partly of gutta-percha. The glass part contains the mouth, which is to 
take in the nipple, and a glass bulb as a receiver of the milk : the gutta- 
percha part is a syringe with a piston. It is the easiest and most 
successful instrument for that purpose. As the force of suction can 
be controlled by the person applying the pump, the pain often caused by 
the act can be avoided by drawing and pushing the piston slowly and 
gently. This pump is also the best instrument to use when the nipples 

need being moulded to a shape that will go into 
the baby's mouth, or drawing them out when they 
are sunk into the breast. 

M. Beluer, in his investigations to determine 
the precise period at which the flow of milk takes 
place, found that, of 974 women, in 22 it occurred 
within the first day after delivery ; in 170, on the 
second day ; in 347, on the third day ; in 266, on 
the fourth day ; in 100, on the fifth day ; in 22, on 
the sixth day; in 5, on the seventh day; in 4 
on the eighth day ; and, in 1, not until the eleventh 
day : so that the rule of largest average places the 
time on the third day. 

By the time the fever is over, ordinarily the 
secretion of milk is very abundant, and the breasts 
have attained their greatest distention. If the 
child draws well, they are emptied every time it sucks, and no engorge- 
ment is to be feared ; but should the child not draw, or the mother choose 
not to nurse her infant, the greatest precautions are necessary to prevent 
engorgement, inflammation, and suppuration of the breasts. For this 
purpose, everything tending to the formation of milk should be avoided. 
The diet should be a very spare one ; and the drinking of ale or other 
stimulants prohibited. 

Warm, emollient applications, such as flaxseed-meal or slippery-elm 
poultice, should be made to the breasts unremittingly, with a view to 
excite perspiration that will relieve the tension. The precautions of 
drawing the milk as above described should be adopted. Even the appli- 
cation of camphorated ointment is very useful in diminishing the quan- 




INTERNAL STRUCTURE OF 

THE BREAST. 

S, S, Sacks ; D, D, Ducts. 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 193 

tity of milk. A strong infusion of sage, taken in doses of one or two 
ounces, every three hours, is said to greatly diminish the secretion of 
milk. An ointment of the extract of belladonna, reduced to the consist- 
ency of thick paste, spread around the nipple for an inch and a half 
beyond it, has been used with great success in reducing the mammae and 
the knots into a flaccid, comfortable state. This, used in time, may 
prevent gathering of the breast. 

In cases where the breasts seem full of milk, and yet the child is 
not able to draw a sufficient quantity to satiate itself, or to relieve the 
breasts, the difficulty may be due to a clogging-up of the little ducts, 
which would require one of stronger force to draw and fairly start the 
flow : for this purpose, the nurse or pump should be employed until the 
milk flows easily ; then apply the child. 

CAUSES THAT AFFECT THE MILK. 

A child may seem satisfied after a few moments' nursing, and even 
fall asleep; but it may soon wake again, and seek for the breast : this 
would indicate that its strength was exhausted in drawing for those few 
moments, or that the mother had not a sufficient quantity of milk to feed 
her child. 

The quantity of milk varies in different women. A woman, although 
in every respect healthy, may barely be able to supply milk enough to 
supply her child ; whilst another may be able to suckle several at a time, 
Hygienic and moral influences affect, also, the quantity of milk. The 
nurse's age, and the size and form of the breasts, are of importance, 
although women with very small breasts often give a profusion of milk. 
Women of lymphatic temperament, where fat predominates, are liable to 
have little milk; and a generous diet, instead of increasing its quantity, 
seems only to become converted into fat. Whatever may be said to the 
contrary, it is a well-proven fact, that even the quality of food influences 
more or less the formation of milk. 

A more distressing occurrence to both mother and child, however, is 
when the mother, through some constitutional abnormality, is not able to 
supply her infant with sufficient milk. Every means that may iucrc. 
the secretion of milk should be adopted. Her diet should be nutritious; 
and, should the deficiency of milk seem to depend upon her weak condi- 
tion, some stimulant, as ale, or soup with wine, may be partaken of with 
great advantage. 
13 



194 LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 

A decoction of " ricinus communis " (the castor-oil-plant) is used 
with great success by the nurses in some parts of South America. They 
make a strong decoction of the leaves, and with it bathe the breasts two 
or three times a day. It is said, that, after a few applications, the breasts 
begin to swell, and very soon discharge milk. It is used by professional 
wet-nurses to prevent the drying-up of their milk, and thus ending their 
occupation. 

Dr. Mc William reports so strongly in its favor, that it is very well 
worth trying, as no bad effect can follow the application. It should be 
applied warm, of course, and even in the shape of a poultice. The 
breasts which are deficient in milk should always be kept very warm ; 
and warm emollient applications are always useful. 

QUALITY OF THE FOOD. 

Milk may be very fluent, and yet of a very inferior quality. To be 
good, it should be white, opaque, sweet, and of a very pleasant taste. It 
contains globules of fat or butter, caseine or cheese, sugar of milk, salts, 
and a little yellow matter, A drop of good milk on a plate of glass will 
not run off easily : it will maintain a globular form, and adhere some- 
what to the glass. Not so with milk deprived of its solids : it will run 
off quicker than water on the slightest inclination of the glass. 

The health of the woman nursing is of importance ; for, while one 
disease may cause the solids to increase, and, in proportion, the water to 
decrease, another, vice versa, decrease the solids, and, in proportion, 
increase the water. The first will make the child liable to indigestions : 
the latter will deprive it of sufficient nutriment to maintain life. The 
age of the mother. Very young and very old women's milk is apt to be 
watery and unnutritious. 

Acute diseases tend to diminish the proportion of sugar, and increase 
the quantity of butter. In chronic diseases, the sugar remains the same ; 
but the solids are diminished. The milk of consumptive nurses is very 
deficient in butter. 

The inference is, therefore, that, when infants must be partly fed 
while the mothers are suffering from an acute disease, less milk, and 
more sugar and water, should be added to their food ; and more milk, and 
less sugar, in chronic affections. 

Moral affections, such as sudden joy, grief, fright, anger, disappoint- 
ments, will alter the milk in the mother, and render it even dangerous to 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS- 195 

the child. When this is the case, the mother should refrain from nurs- 
ing her infant until she is quite composed, and her breasts have been, 
once at least, thoroughly emptied by the pump, or otherwise. Spasms 
and death to the infant have occurred in consequence of disregarding this 
precaution. In nervous women, the milk is apt to be very thin, and of a 
greenish color. 

While, in some instances, women, although menstruating while 
nursing, have thriving infants, there are many whose milk deteriorates 
so much as to be insufficient for the nourishment of the child. This is 
soon discovered by observing that a child, although in apparent health, 
constantly loses in strength and flesh. 

Pregnancy during lactation is a very unfortunate occurrence. It 
will not require a great strength of intellect to understand that the 
mother could not supply food to a being in the world while she is supply- 
ing food to one in her womb. One of the two must suffer ; and as the 
sympathy that exists between the womb and the breast is such that the 
latter are always affected by the conditions of the former, it will be so in 
this case ; and the milk will so deteriorate in quality as to be totally unfit 
as food for the child. 

ARTICLES OP DIET AND MEDICINE. 

The most experienced accoucheurs advise pregnant women to relin- 
quish nursing from the moment that they find themselves pregnant. 
Isolated cases in which a woman has succeeded in raising a health}'. 
thriving child by her own milk, while she was pregnant, are not sufficient 
reasons for a woman to disregard this general principle. 

Effect of certain alimentary or medicinal substances on the milk. 
It is an indisputable fact that articles of diet or medicine impart to the 
milk some of their properties, which are conveyed to the child through 
nursing. One has only to eat garlic to detect the odor, or saffron to 
detect the peculiar color, in the milk. Anise-seed tea, taken by the 
nurse, has cured flatulent colic in babies; and a purgative taken by the 
nurse has often purged the child. In hereditary diseases, doctors have 
cured the child by treating the nursing mother. 

This experience should be sufficient to caution the nursing mother 
against the use of such articles as onions, beans, cabbages, spirituous 
liquor, medicines, and all such things as are known to affect her 
disagaeeably. 



196 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 



Nurses who are poorly fed will find that the quantity of water in 
their milk is apt to increase; while, in those who indulge in the pleasures 
of the table, the solids will increase the former will make but poor milk, 
the latter too rich. A sensible woman can easily avoid these difficulties, 
and raise a healthy baby by adopting a reasonable diet. 

Violent exercise will affect the milk. The mother should never 
run home, and, as quickly as she enters her chamber, open her breast to 
the child. She should rest an hour" at least after returning from a heated 
walk, cool down, and then nurse her baby. 

The retentive power of the mouths of the milk-ducts on the nipple is 

sometimes so greatly dimin- 
ished as to permit the milk, 
when formed, to flow away 
continually. A want of 
tone in the fibres of these 
ducts is the cause of the in- 
continence. This may be a 
source of serious trouble to 
the mother, who, besides 
regretting to see the fluid 
that is to nurse her child 
flow away from her, is an- 
noyed by the discomfort of 
having her clothes kept 
constantly wet. 

Nipple-glasses well ap- 
plied will prevent the milk from running over the dress. Such glasses 
are found in every drug-store. Still they should be used only when abso- 
lutely necessary ; for, having the air exhausted in order that they may 
adhere to the breast, they draw, thus keeping on the flow which should 
be prevented. 

The formation of milk may be so rapid and excessive as to greatly 
endanger the health of the mother. General debility, loss of appetite, a 
sensation of heat in the stomach, pains and dragging sensations in the 
back and chest, are symptoms that will soon make their appearance. If 
this is allowed to continue, the " nurse's consumption,-' so called, may be 
brought on. The patient gets weaker and more emaciated every day, 
until hectic fever sets in as the precursor of an early death. 




MAMMARY GLANDS, THE LOWER HALF DISSECTED. 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 197 

Weaning is, in such a case, peremptory, in order to save the mother's 
life. As soon as the milk ceases to form, the patient gains in strength ; 
and a change to the country will greatly assist in her ultimate recovery. 

Dr. Tyler Smith says, " The cases of insanity which occur as the 
result of excessive nursing are very similar to cases of puerperal insanity, 
only that their symptoms come on in a more gradual manner. When 
nursing women complain of loss of sight or hearing, or headache, either 
their nourishment or stimulus should be increased, or suckling should be 
at once discontinued. Where there is any predisposition to insanity, 
mothers should not, if possible, be allowed to suckle their children. In 
all cases of this kind the dependence of the mania upon exhaustion is 
abundantly evident. It is especially likely to happen when pregnancy 
and lactation are allowed to proceed simultaneously." 

SYMPTOMS OF OVER NURSING. 

Leddam gives the following symptoms indicating that nursing is 
affecting the mother: U A sinking and fainting in the region of the 
stomach with a sense of emptiness, which lasts a long time, and soon 
returns, even after food had been taken ; a general weariness and fatigue ; 
a want or refreshment from sleep ; an aching and dragging in the loins, 
and pain between the shoulder-blades, or in the side, beneath the left 
breast ; distressing exhaustion after the infant has been at the breast ; 
the pulse is quick and feeble ; the extremities cold ; short breath and pal- 
pitation at the least exertion, or on going up stairs. If the cause is 
continued, headache and vertigo, noises in the ears, numbness of the 
extremities, impaired vision, loss of memory, irritability and despondency, 
with thirst, dryness of the tongue, and night perspiration, ensue. Pul- 
monary consumption may be developed; leucorrhcea, dropsy of the face 
and feet, profuse menses, neuralgic affections, supervene ; and mania has 
not unfrequently formed the sequel.'' 

These symptoms are sufficiently formidable to warn women against 
too much and too long continued nursing. The fact that the child 
thrives is no reason for them to sacrifice their life, when other means can 
be found to supply the child with food that will be equally good for it. 

Weaning should be at once commenced : the attempt to force the 
supply of milk by large and frequent quantities of beer, wine, or spil 
will only tend to the more perfect exhaustion o( the mother. It* cocoa, 
wine-whey, weak milk punch, caudle, cheese, etc., aided by Frictions of 



198 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 



the breasts, do not suffice to keep up the strength of the patient, and 
a full supply of good milk, all further attempts should at once be 
abandoned. 

Can a mother in good health substitute a better nourishment for her 
own infant than her own milk? No. Whatever art or science may 
invent to replace the mother's milk, they will only succeed approxi- 
mately, never intimately. Therefore, the mother who willingly refuses 
her breast to her babe lacks the very fundamental attribute of a mother, 
— love for her offspring. She is willing that her babe should have an 
indifferent or noxious diet rather than its natural food, inherited, and due 
to it as the most sacred of its rights. An unnatural mother she must be 

who is willing to 
relinquish the crea- 
ture of her love to 
a cow, a she-ass, a 
goat, or to a wo- 
man, who, even 
from necessity, 
makes a trade of 
her breast. Moral- 
ly, I should abhor 
the mother, who, 
conceited of her 
own beauty, en- 
slaved by her own 
pleasures, held by the relentless grasp of fashion, could hush her 
maternal instincts, and refuse her bosom to her appealing infant, to 
plunge herself into the vortex of self-indulgence. 

The result may be frightful in the extreme. What if the nurse 
inoculates some hidden disease to the child ? What if an error in the 
preparation of artificial food should cause an indigestion that would carry 
the darling to its grave ? Would her apology, that other women have 
successfully raised children " by hand," hush and soothe the pangs of 
remorse that would overwhelm her, unless she is so far gone and hard- 
ened in self-indulgence as to be proof against the piercing throes of 
moral consciousness ? Better, better never to have seen this godly 
offspring of your affections, than bear the guilt of its extinction. 

Ill health, constitutional diseases which would make nursing a source 




THE MOTHER S JOY AND PRIDE. 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 199 

of danger to the mother's life, or to the well-being of the child hereafter, 
and these only, should debar a woman from nursing her own infant. 
Slight irregularities, want of robustness and vigor, should not be too 
easily used as a pretext to relieve one's self of this duty. Women who 
have very small breasts, and a delicate organization, supply often an 
abundance of good milk to their infants, with benefit to their own health. 
It must be borne in mind that this is a natural process, and that, there- 
fore, there is more danger in not performing it than in allowing it to 
have its natural course. 

Nursing will prevent the engorgement of the breasts, abscesses, 
fissures of the nipples, and other difficulties a newly-delivered women is 
liable to when she does not nurse. A woman of scrofulous constitution, 
one addicted to recurring diseases of the skin, or subject to hereditary 
diseases, — as insanity, consumption, syphilis, inflammatory rheumatism^ 
gout, disease of the heart, — should not nurse her infant. In any such 
case, however, her physician should be consulted. 

MALFORMATION OF THE NIPPLE. 

The nipple may be more or less developed, and, according to its 
development, it may present more or less difficulty to nursing. There 
are instances in which the nipple is almost entirely obliterated, or has 
never been allowed to develop, through an early pressure made upon the 
breasts by tight corsets, and by false compresses, used to improve the 
appearance of the shape, or to make a dress fit according to fashion. 

There are instances of natural malformation, also, where the nipple 
not only does not project, but actually occupies a depression, rendering 
it impossible for the child to get at it. 

Whenever such difficulties exist, the woman should adopt early 
precautions to improve the conformation of the nipple. A very good 
method, one which gives but little trouble, as it requires no assist- 
ance, is the daily application of the pump to the breasts two or three 
months before labor. Let the pump be applied so as to take the nipple 
within its chamber ; let the air then be exhausted by withdrawing the 
piston, and the nipple will be pressed within the chamber, very much 
elongated. It should be retained there for fifteen or twenty minutes each 
time ; for thus may be gradually produced a well-shaped nipple where 
was but an incipient one. 

After the application of the pump, wash the nipple and the surround- 



200 LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 

ing areola with arnicated water, or with glycerine, or any fatty matter 
that will keep the skin supple, and prevent excoriations. The nipple- 
shields that are used to protect the nipple by compressing around it 
through the pressure of the corsets are not very successful ; and the 
constant pressure might cause ulceration : hence this mode cannot be 
recommended. 

Suction by the husband or by an intelligent nurse is not only effect- 
ive, but more natural, in the preparation of the nipples. This should be 
done twice a day. After each time, the nipples should be washed with 
arnicated water, and covered with wax, as follows : take a piece of white 
wax, immerse it in warm water to soften it, spread it out, and then press 
it around a finger so as to give shape to it ; then apply it so as to retain 
the elongated nipples within it. . Another method to elongate the nipples 
is to tie a bit of woollen thread or yarn two or three times around the 
base of the nipple after having it gently pulled out with the fingers. It 
should be tied snugly, but not enough to impede the circulation : it can 
be worn three or four weeks. 

HOW TO DEVELOP THE FLOW OF MILK. 

These processes should be commenced about two months before 
delivery, and continued until the nipples maintain a good and prominent 
shape. The same treatment may be used during nursing, if the nipples 
are too short. 

In case a child is so weakly as to be unable to draw from a short or 
an ill-developed nipple, let a stronger child nurse first, so as to give it 
shape, and cause the milk to flow freely. It may be necessary even to 
allow the weakly baby to nurse from an easy breast until it has become 
strong and vigorous. 

During the nursing, erosions, excoriations, chaps, fissures, and 
cracks of the nipples, often occur, which render nursing not only painful, 
but unbearable. After nursing, do not expose the nipple to cold, but 
wash it with warm water, and protect it. The exposure of the nipple to 
cold may bring on an inflammation, which may be followed by ulcera- 
tions, chaps, and crackings. Women of a fine and sensitive skin are 
very liable to these troubles in the first month of lactation, and should 
therefore be particularly careful ; for the pain caused by the child's seiz- 
ing the nipple may be so great as to cause even an affectionate mother to 
relinquish nursing. 






LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 201 

Mothers of a very delicate skin should make the effort to harden the 
nipples before delivery ; and this can be done by gentle frictions with the 
dry hand, by repeated and daily applications of arnicated water, glycer- 
ine, or tannin. An ointment which may be applied with gentle frictions 
on the nipple for a month before delivery is the following : cocoa-butter, 
two drachms ; oil of sweet almonds, two drachms; tannin, two drachms. 

When these erosions, cracks, and excoriations are present, nursing 
should be done as rarely as possible, so as to give time to the ulcers to 
heal. Great care should be taken to wash the nipples after each nurs- 
ing ; first with warm water and white castile-soap, then with a solution of 
borax or alum. They should then be covered up with collodion. Collo- 
dion should be spread over the cracks and excoriations with a camel's- 
hair pencil ; it will make a pellicle impervious to the air. If the baby's 
milk sours on his stomach, wash the nipple with lime-water. If the 
baby has the thrush (minute ulcers in the mouth), wash the nipple with 
a solution of borax. 

Glycerine may be applied with benefit. Glycerine and Tannin, equal 
parts, is an excellent application. The nipple should be well washed, 
however, before offering it again to the child. 

OINTMENTS MIXED WITH MINERALS. 

For applications of ointments or solutions containing mercury, nitrate 
of silver, sulphate of zinc, or other powerful astringents or minerals, the 
physician should be consulted. 

An artificial nipple or shield may be used with great relief to the 
mother, if the child can be made to take it. To induce the child to take 
it, fill it up with warm milk as you apply it to the breast : as the child 
feels the flow of milk in his mouth, he will grasp it, draw the milk it 
contains, and, as the air between the shield and the nipple becomes 
exhausted, the shield will cling to the breast, and the process of nursing 
will go on with much less pain to the mother. The cracks will open even 
then ; but they would not be exposed to the friction and pressure of the 
child's tongue, and would therefore have a better chance to heal. 

Internal treatment, although I doubt its efficacy as long as an external 
irritation is kept up, is suggested by man}', and may prove useful when 
the local irritation induces an excitement of the whole system. 

The subject of " Insufficiency of Milk in the Mother's Breast " 
already been treated. The paragraph, however, treats only of the mat: 



202 LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 

by which the quantity of milk may be increased. When the quantity 
cannot be increased on account of some constitutional disturbance, or 
of some conformation of the breasts, the necessity follows, that the child 
must receive some other nursing besides that of its own mother. 

Mixed nursing is one of the most dangerous modes of raising children, 
unless great care is taken that the mixed food does not produce derange- 
ments of digestion. 

It often happens, that, after two or three months' nursing, the mother 
becomes aware that her milk does not satisfy her child, and that, although 
in perfect health, it loses flesh all the time. The necessity is then appar- 
ent that the child must receive some other nourishment besides its 
mother's milk. 

WHEN THE WET-NURSE IS NEEDED. 

A wet-nurse is the first means to be thought of to supply this 
deficiency, provided the mother can be reconciled to share with another 
being the nursing of her own child. We cannot but sympathize with the 
mother who is too jealous of her baby's love to allow any other woman to 
rob her of a part of it, and could not insist upon her relinquishing her 
maternal instincts, and taking a wet-nurse. In this case, cow's or goat's 
milk, or other things, should supply the deficiency. This should be done, 
however, as soon as possible ; for, the more the child becomes accustomed 
to the breast, the harder it will be to make it take the bottle. 

When mixed nursing is adopted, the mother should nurse the child 
in daytime, and feed it by the bottle at night : this will insure a good 
night's rest to the mother, so much needed for the formation of milk. 

After the fourth or fifth month, if the mother's milk still decreases or 
becomes deteriorated in quality, or if the mother's strength greatly 
suffers in consequence, it would be well for her to give up nursing alto- 
gether. At this age, children under artificial feeding thrive better than 
they do at an earlier age, and there is little to fear for their welfare. At 
this age, many people commence feeding children with paps and panadas ; 
and as they are often successful, particularly if the child thus fed is of a 
vigorous constitution, they advise others to follow their example. I must 
insist, nevertheless, that a child under ten months of age is safer when 
fed by cow's, goat's, or ass's milk, than by farinaceous food, however well 
it may be prepared. 

When the child is presented to the mother commences that period of 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 203 

nursing, which, with few modifications, is to be continued for many 
months. All the paragraphs in this work, treating of u Lactation," should 
be carefully perused and observed by the mother, to enable herself to 
maintain a good quantity and a good quality of milk for her child. 

Good habits are as conducive to the welfare of an infant as they are 
to a grown person. Habits are acquired through a persistent method of 
application, and, when formed, our system responds to them with regular- 
ity : a child may thus become thoroughly regulated by the will of the 
mother. Regular habits will greatly contribute to the well being of the 
infant ; for its intervals of rest, sleep, or nursing, need never be interfered 
with, and the equilibrium of the functions of its organs so well main- 
tained, that it could not get sick except through accident. 

TEACHING THE CHILD REGULAR HABITS. 

Regular habits is the first lesson in the education of that being which 
can only grow by the fulfilment of all the laws of Nature. As the child 
commences with purely an animal life, so feeding is its first act, its first 
thought, its first desire, in maintaining its existence. Feeding plays the 
most important part in the sustenance of its animal life. And, as the 
child cannot for some time bring its animal instincts under the discipline 
of reason, it follows that the mother must impart to it, through a method 
consistent with the requirements of nature, those habits which will be 
conducive to its well being. Only a woman who has brought up children 
regularly and irregularly can tell the ease and comfort derived from the 
former, and the difficulties and annoyances derived from the latter. Hence 
make your rules for nursing, and adhere to them with a pertinacity 
worthy only of a mother who loves her child. 

Nurse your child at stated hours, and do not deviate by a minute : 
soon you will have the happiness to see that your child will awake only 
at those hours, as regularly as the hand of the dial points to them. The 
intervals will be periods of refreshing sleep to the child, and of needed 
rest to the mother. 

During the day, for the first two months, if your child is vigorous, 
nurse it every two hours; during the third and fourth months, every three 
hours ; after that, every four hours. Should you do otherwise, and should 
you nurse the child every time it cries, you will overload its stomach, 
without giving it a sufficient time to digest the food ; an error that will 
tend to gradually derange the digestive functions, and induce all its tear- 



204 LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 

ful consequences of indigestion. Besides, the child will soon begin to 
know that it can nurse whenever it cries ; and then it will cry very often, 
and give signs that it wants the breast every time. 

Should its cries sometimes be only the result of nervousness or 
uneasiness produced by indigestion, your nursing, instead of relieving 
will only add fuel to the fire. Slow digestion will cause flatulence, flatu- 
lence will cause colic ; and when you think that the child cries and 
desperately throws itself about for food, it is only giving notice that it has 
cramp-colic in its belly. The fact that nursing often quiets the child is 
taken as an indication that it needed food. That is a mistake : a little 
more food may stupefy it, rendering it less conscious of its pains, but 
this is only temporarily so ; in a little while, the child will cry and writhe 
worse than ever. 

REASONS FOR CHILDREN'S CRYING. 

Children may cry even without any appreciable reason ; it is a way 
they have sometimes to entertain themselves ; they, too, like to hear their 
own voice. If that indulgence does them no harm, let them cry ; their 
lungs will receive the benefit of this muscular action. 

The cries of hunger, which may occur soon after feeding, if the 
mother's milk is poor in quality, are generally accompanied by throwing 
the little arms about, turning the head to the breast, and opening the 
mouth to every thing offered. 

If the child is weak, and can nurse only a little at a time, it may, of 
course, be necessary to nurse it oftener; but this should be done only 
with a perfect understanding of the child's condition. 

At night, the child should not be nursed as often as during the day. 
For the first three months, nurse it when you put it to bed, say six or 
seven o'clock, P. M.; then at eleven or twelve o'clock ; then at five or six, 
A. M. After that period, you may omit the midnight meal, and, if the 
child wakes, give to it a sip of water. This method will secure many 
an hour of good sleep to the mother, and give wholesome habits to the 
child. 

A child in good health generally wakes spontaneously when it needs 
nourishment. Some children, however, are slow in taking the nipple. In 
that case, wet the nipple with a little of the milk, and titillate the child's 
mouth with it until it takes hold. When the child does not wake, through 
constitutional weakness, it should be wakened at stated periods. If it is 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 205 

very weak, it may sleep almost constantly, and the mother may rejoice at 
the quietude of her infant ; but she will soon find that the child is less 
and less inclined to nurse after each prolonged sleep, that it cries very 
weakly, and is ready to go to sleep again. 

Such evidence of weakness is dangerous in the extreme ; and the 
child should beat once undressed, taken to a warm fire, and rubbed briskly 
with a flannel moistened with some stimulating substance, as alcohol, 
whiskey, brandy, or camphorated spirit ; and, if the child is still disin- 
clined to nurse, milk should be drawn from the breast and given with the 
spoon until there are signs of restoration of strength. It should be 
wakened every hour or two, and fed as above, until it is able to take the 
nipple, and nurse itself. 

BEST TIME FOR WEANING THE CHILD. 

It is difficult to say how long a child should nurse ; for what is 
plenty for one may be too little or too much for another : but, if in good 
health, the child may be allowed to nurse until it is satisfied, for Nature 
will relieve it by a good throwing up if it has taken too much. If the act 
of nursing lulls it to sleep before it has had a fair allowance, wake it up 
and it will go on nursing again. As soon as it has had enough, and 
drops asleep, put it in its cradle ; do not retain it one minute longer on 
your arms, lest it might take cold, or contract such habits of sleeping out 
of its bed, that will be difficult to conquer when the holding of the child 
becomes a labor, and ceases to be a pleasure. 

While the child is at the breast, notice if it swallows ; for often it 
plays with the nipple without drawing the milk ; the act of deglutition is 
very apparent by the motion of the throat. 

Never neglect to make the child nurse at both breasts during the same 
meal : this will prevent engorgement of one breast while the other is 
emptied, and will also accustom the child to lie 011 either side without 
preference. 

In case the breasts become so distended with milk as to be painful 
to the mother, and make it difficult for the child to hold the nipple dec 
embedded in them, the pump should be applied, and some milk drawn 
before nursing. 

Breast-glasses or reservoirs can be worn by the mother. The air in 
them being rarified by breathing hot air within them, they will gently 
draw as they cool, and receive milk that will flow from the over-extended 



206 LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 

breasts even by the pressure of the dress. These will act twofold : they 
will relieve the breasts, and save the dress from being constantly wet and 
soiled. 

Nursing women require rest and sleep for the formation of plenty of 
good milk : consequently they should not keep the baby in bed with 
them ; for it will soon learn its way to the breast, and nurse all night, 
even unknowingly to the mother. This would be very injurious to the 
child, besides exposing it to the accident of crushing or suffocation. If 
the mother has an attendant, let the latter carry the child to her at the 
stated periods ; if not, and the mother is compelled to keep the child in 
her own room, it is better that she should get up and take her child than 
run the risk of keeping the child in her own bed. A baby in her bed 
will sink lower than the pillow, and may eventually be covered over by 
the bed-clothes, compelling it to breathe the impure air emanated under 
them, while the purest air is necessary to its existence. 

COLD AIR AND GATHERED BREASTS. 

Do not expose your breast to the cold air ; for, in its sensitive condi- 
tion, it is liable to take up inflammation, which will end in abscesses or 
gathered-breasts, commonly called, so terrible to the mother, and danger- 
ous to the child : avoid, therefore, nursing a child while taking a drive in 
a carriage, unless it is in a warm summer day. 

Never nurse a child immediately after a heated walk or a fit of 
anger : rest, and get cool. After a fit of passion, it would be better to 
draw out the milk with the pump, and wait for a fresh supply. 

The natural food for a child is woman's milk, not cows's or goat's. 
Whenever it is decided that the mother is not to nurse her infant, the 
breast of a healthy woman should be procured to fulfil the laws of Nature 
as to the child's diet. 

In the selection of a nurse, the physician should be consulted. No 
mother should engage a wet-nurse without her having been examined 
and indorsed by a skilful and conscientious physician. So far as her 
physical condition is concerned, he should be the only judge. 

The appearance of the nurse should be one to indicate health and 
strength ; her skin should be clear, and free of all eruptions. Enlarge- 
ment of the glands around the neck indicate a scrofulous taint, which 
should be strenuously objected to. Cicatrices around the neck indicate a 
previous existence of enlargement and suppuration of those glands. 






LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 207 

Although beauty should not be an indispensable attribute of a nurse, 
a good face, a pleasant expression, will be agreeable to the mother, who 
must make of this woman almost a companion for several months. 

Intelligence, unstained character, and a general good disposition, are 
necessary qualities for a foster-mother. A bad countenance is as repul- 
sive to a baby as to a grown person. The probity and morality of the 
woman should be above suspicion. 

Since the moral, as well as the physical condition of the nurse, will 
influence the infant, it is important that she should be free of all vices 
and pernicous habits, such as a taste for liquors, an irascible temper, or a 
morose disposition. Violent passion can induce such an alteration in the 
milk as to be poison to the child. Affliction, care, and despondency in 
the nurse, will render a child nervous, peevish, and restless. 

The age of a nurse should be inquired into ; the ages between the 
twentieth and thirtieth year being the most suitable. The woman should 
be cleanly in her habits, and moderate in her eating and drinking. If 
she has her own baby at the breast, its appearance will be a criterion 
of her ability to give wholesome food to a child. 

SORE MOUTH AND EYES. 

She should put away her baby when she undertakes to nurse } T ours, 
for very cogent reasons. The nurse should have been delivered three or 
four weeks before the mother, to be sure that she has regained her 
strength, and is free from all the irritations concomitant with the puer- 
peral state. But as the woman's milk may be too strong for a newly-born 
baby, and, moreover, as her milk then will not contain the colorstruin 
(that element found in the first flow of milk, which acts as a natural 
cathartic to the child to clear its bowels of the meconium), it is well to 
allow the child to nurse from its mother for a day or two, until it has 
dejected that blackish matter which would otherwise be retained as an 
irritant to its bowels. 

A voluminous breast is not always an indication of a great power to 
supply milk ; for, generally, it is fat that renders it massive. A small 
breast with large glands often supplies more and better milk. 

For the quality of milk the paragraphs on that subject will be 
applicable to wet-nurses as well as to mothers. 

Although a nurse may be in a perfect condition when she is engaged, 
perhaps a month or two before she is required, she should be examined 



208 LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 

at the time she is to take the child ; for in the interval elapsed, her 
condition may have materially changed. Should she become pregnant 
during nursing, she must be given up for another. 

A woman who has nursed several children would be more acceptable 
than one who never nursed before ; for her experience in handling and 
taking care of a child may be of great advantage, particularly if the 
mother is young and inexperienced. One who has several children is 
not apt to brood over the separation from her own child as a new mother 
would. It is true that a woman who has raised children may have 
contracted ways and habits which are objectionable, and which will be 
difficult for her to relinquish ; still, even then, it is better than that the 
child should suffer from ignorance. 

If a mother is compelled to engage a wet-nurse after having nursed 
her own baby for a few weeks or months, she should see that the nurse's 
milk is not much older than her own. A difference of two or three 
months would not be objectionable, if the baby is older than six month s 

REQUIREMENTS OF THE WET-NURSE. 

See that the nurse and her child are not affected by a sore mouth or 
sore eyes. Should the nurse's milk seem too rich for the baby, she should 
not nurse it to repletion ; and, after each time, she should make it drink 
a little sugared water ; this would dilute the milk in the child's stomach. 

From the earlier paragraphs on " Lactation," — " Insufficiency of 
Milk," " Quality of Milk," " Effects of Certain Alimentary or Medicinal 
Substances on the Milk," etc., — the mother or wet-nurse may gather by 
direct advice, or by inference, much instruction in regard to regimen and 
diet. 

A woman who is to bear the fatigue of nursing and attending a 
child should be supplied with a generous diet. Rich beef-broth, beef, 
poultry, and game, roasted or broiled, should form the most important 
part of her meals. She may partake of vegetables, with the exception of 
onions, garlic, cabbages, carrots, and beans. Highly-seasoned food should 
be avoided, as well as an excess of mustard, pepper, vinegar, pastry, and 
other indigestible condiments. Coffee should be avoided altogether, and 
tea (black) used with great discretion. Green tea should be avoided. 

Although the woman should eat enough to satisfy her appetite, she 
should take care not to overload her stomach ; for indigestion, vomiting, 
diarrhoea, or constipation would follow, to the detriment of the child also 



LACTATION, OR FOOD FOR INFANTS. 



209 



Rest and freedom from anxiety and care, are indispensable. Healthy 
exercise and pure air, avoidance of dampness and colds, in fact, every 
thing conducive to health and good habits, should be carefully attended to. 

It is a common practice to supply a nurse with much food, and 
strong drinks, such as ale, porter, etc., to induce a plenty of rich milk. 
This is often a great error ; for, in thus forcing her powers of assimila- 
tion, you may defeat the very object you want to attain, by rendering her 
liable to all the terrible effects of indigestion. It is also a common 
remark, that " mothers who are suckling may eat any thing ;" but do not 
forget that bad food cannot make good milk any more than bad food can 
make good blood. 

The hours for meals should be regular ; and late dinners, or eating 
late at night, are not conducive to the health of a nursing-woman any 
more than to an}' other. The use of tonics and stimulants should be 
avoided, except when ordered by the physician. 

A wet-nurse should be allowed exercise according to her previous 
habits. Had she been a working-woman, she should be employed in 
light duties about the house. Was she a country-woman, do not confine 
her to heated chambers, but let her go often in the open air. 




14 




THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 




CHAPTER XVII. 

S at puberty, from the ignorance in which it is still thought 
right to leave young women, so at the change of life women 
often suffer from ignorance of what may occur, or from 
exaggerated notions of the perils that await them. It would 
be well if they were made to understand that if in tolerable 



health, provided they will conform to judicious rules, 

they have only blessings to expect from the change of 

life. 

This critical period may be dangerous for those who 

are always ailing, for habitual sufferers at the menstrual 
periods, and for those affected with uterine diseases ; and if the sufferings 
of women were protracted previous to the healthy establishment of the 
periodical flow, they may likewise expect cessation to be attended by a 
corresponding period of suffering. Women should know that unless 
they be pregnant or nursing, great irregularities in the monthly appear- 
ance, or its prolonged absence, coinciding with sensations of sinking at 
the pit of the stomach, with flushes and perspirations, even though 
their age may only be between thirty and forty, may be considered warn- 
ings of cessation. 

This knowledge would prevent cessation being considered in the 
light of temporary suppression; and forcing medicines being taken without 
medical advice. If, on the first indication of the change of life, women who 
are in fair health carefully followed a regimen and pursued a line of life 
in harmony with the physiological processes on which this change 
depends, disease would be prevented; but as the change concerns a 
210 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 211 

natural function, it is left to Nature ; no additional precautions are taken, 
and advice is only sought for when the mischief is done. It is, then, well 
worth considering what are the rules of hygiene best calculated to prevent 
and cure the diseases of the change of life, referring these rules to the 
great functions of the human economy. 

There is something more or less anomalous and morbid in the repro- 
ductive organs, and in their action on the system, during the first half of 
the change of life, and in the latter part of this period these organs have 
a tendency to become atrophied (shriveled). Can there be a clearer indi- 
cation that their hitherto appropriate stimulus is likely to interfere with 
a natural process, while the change is going on, and that it is not wise to 
marry during this unsettled period ? I have repeatedly remarked that, 
even in those who have been long married, connection at the change of 
life may be a cause of uterine disorders, which are of frequent occurrence 
in women marrying during this epoch. 

MORBID IMPULSES AT THIS PERIOD. 

Some physiologists say that, as a flickering flame gives a final blaze, 
so, in some women, sexual desire is strongest when the reproductive 
power is about to be extinguished ; this occurs very seldom, and I have 
been repeatedly made aware that a distaste for connection was the sign of 
an approaching change. My experience teaches me that a marked 
increase of sexual impulse at the change of life is a morbid impulse, 
depending upon either neuralgic or inflammatory affections of the genital 
organs, and I corroborate Boismont's assertion, that " whenever sexual 
impulse is first felt at the change of life, some morbid ovario-uterine 
condition will be found to explain it, in nineteen cases out of twenty." 

It, therefore, is most imprudent for women to inarcy at this epoch. 
without having obtained the sanction of a medical man. If this had been 
done in some cases that have come under my observation, flooding would 
not have been the result of marriage, slight uterine disease would not 
have been considerably aggravated, the march of undetected cancer would 
not have been hastened, and other women would not have become insane, 
as in the following case : 

Mrs. B. was fifty-one when she consulted me ; she had been all her 
life an intelligent, active, and determined woman, eccentric, but not nerv- 
ous ; and she married when about fifty, during the dodging time. In the 
wedding night she had severe uterine pain, and flooded to a great extent 



212 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

during the following days, and then her mind became bent on suicide, 
with habitual fits of melancholy. Doubt was the characteristic of her 
mental state ; she could not make up her mind to anything, and was 
always doubting about right and wrong. 

When I first saw her she had not slept for a fortnight, and had sen- 
sations of burning in the breasts and the lower part of the abdomen, 
menstruation being irregular, scanty, and dark-colored. I gave morphia 
internally, ordered a succession of belladonna plasters to the pit of the 
stomach, effervescing draughts and warm baths. She got very much 
better in a fortnight, and was well in about six months, when menstrua- 
tion ceased. Since this occurred, there has been no return of the mental 
disturbance, notwithstanding the long illness and the death of her hus- 
band and mother. 

The following case also shows how women sometimes seek to stay 
the inexorable hand of time by protracting the regular appearance of the 
signs of womanhood, and another patient, who married at fifty, occasion- 
ally applied a leech to the pudenda (genital organs), to make believe that 
menstruation had not ceased. 

AN ILLUSION DESTROYED. 

Some years ago I was consulted by a lady, aged forty-eight, who, 
when about twenty-five, formed a strong attachment, but family circum- 
stances prevented a union from taking place till the lady was forty-five. 
The discharge had proceeded regularly up to the period of marriage, but 
then ceased. As the sudden cessation coincided with gastric symptoms, 
with a distension of the abdomen, and, above all, with a great anxiety for 
children, the patient was considered pregnant, and carefully watched for 
many months. When the illusion was destroyed, the lady brooded over 
the possibility of her husband supposing that the courses had stopped 
previous to her marriage. 

After a minute investigation, I expressed my conviction that th e 
monthly flow had ceased. About a year afterwards I was asked to see 
her again, and learned that, having consulted someone else, she had 
taken steel, purgatives, and large doses of savine, until she had a terrific 
flooding. This was followed by a sanguinoid (bloody) discharge for 
several months, and other symptoms of inflammation of the body of the 
womb, of which there was no sign previous to marriage. 

When menstruation is well over, there is no reason why widows 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 213 

should not marry, although marriage will render them more liable than 
they would otherwise have been to vaginitis (inflammation of the vagina) 
and the milder forms of womb inflammation. It is a very serious thing 
for a spinster to marry about fifty, particularly if she be anxious, nerv- 
ous, and excitable ! Will she bear well the new life ? Has she the 
power to adapt herself to new and enlarged circumstances ? Will happi- 
ness be wrecked in the venture ? These are questions to be seriously 
thought of. 

At all times marriage should be followed by a most quiet life, still 
more so when contracted at the change of life. Fatigue should be avoided, 
and arrangements made for an hour's rest on the sofa in the middle of 
the day. Local irritation may be allayed by fomenting the parts with 
very hot water, or by adding a drachm of acetate of lead to a pint of cold 
water, to be used as a wash three times a day. 

LESS OP POOD AND STIMULANTS. 

Having shown that the debility often experienced at the change of 
life sometimes depends upon the frame being oppressed by an overplus 
of blood, for which there is no longer a monthly drain, it is rational that 
on the very first appearance of the irregularities characteristic of this 
epoch, women should curtail rather than augment the amount of food and 
stimulants to which they have been accustomed. When in the famity- 
way or nursing, or so long as the menstrual flow remains regular and 
abundant, many women can, without inconvenience, take meat three 
times a day, and beer and wine at both luncheon and dinner ; but when 
the surplus blood produced by high feeding can neither be well emploj-ed 
nor regularly ejected, it increases all the sufferings of the change of life, 
and brings on obstinate biliousness and constipation. 

I should be ashamed of insisting on anything so self-evident, if I 
were not often consulted by the plethoric patient, to whom generous diet 
had been recommended by medical men, to relieve the debility and nerv- 
ous symptoms of which they complained. Some had disregarded the 
advice, because they found high living increased their sufferings and 
their sleeplessness ; whereas, when living rather low, they slept better 
and suffered less. Some had judiciously left off the wine they had been 
told to take, because they found it muddled their heads and increased 
their nervousness. 

Such women justify these observations; and their breakfast should 



214 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

consist of toast bread and butter, with weak tea, coffee or cocoa ; and it 
would be better to make the principal meal at the fashionable lunch hour 
of two o'clock, in order that their last meal may be light, which can be 
easily managed, even if the usages of society should require a lady's 
presence at an eight o'clock dinner table. Dinner should be a plain 
meal ; fish, and white meats, such as fowl, in preference to beef or 
mutton; more of the crust than the crumb of the bread, and jellies and 
ice in preference to pudding. 

If, on the contrary, all sorts of farinaceous food, pastry and cakes, be 
indulged in, the natural consequence will be a desire to prolong sleep, a 
distaste for exercise, and a tendency to congestions, bleedings, inflamma- 
tions, and gout, or women may become distressingly stout. 

THE BEST KIND OP DIET. 

A cup of beef tea, or arrowroot, or something equally light, with a 
biscuit, may be taken for supper ; but those want none, who dine late. 
Ripe fruits and vegetables may be indulged in, to any amount not inter- 
fering with digestion. While women who have a tendency to become 
fat, thus require less food, sleep and exercise than those who continue 
thin at cessation, both should beware of misinterpreting sensations of 
internal sinking and exhaustion to which all are more or less subject, 
and they should not too often seek relief for languor, weakness, or nerv- 
ousness, in wines, cordials, and spirits, by which only a temporary stimu- 
lus can be obtained, at the expense of an increase in the faintness, 
flushes, perspirations, and nervous symptoms. 

The system requires supporting by medicines and regimen, rather 
than stimulating by spirits ; and I have known instances oL women who, 
by a misinterpretation of their sufferings, have gradually so increased 
their usual consumption of wine or brandy, as to induce habits of 
intoxication. Effervescing draughts, as well as effervescing lemonade, 
and ginger-beer, are well indicated; coffee should be made weak or 
avoided, and tea should be used in moderation. 

Patients prolong their sufferings, by ringing at every hour of the 
day for tea ; for ten or twelve cups of strong tea in the twenty-four hours 
tell injuriously on the nervous system. Some women of the plethoric 
type would do well to abstain, for a time, not only from wine and coffee, 
but also from pepper and spices ; but, of course, when women are thin 
and weak, they require more food and stimulants, If, during and after 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 215 

the change of life, women live as I recommend, they have no further 
unsettlement of life and fear. 

Fatty degeneration begins unsuspectedly in the capillaries, and 
steadily progresses, till at last health fails without apparent cause, or the 
kidneys become diseased, or maybe a fatty heart suddenly gives away. 
Owing to great increase of fat in the abdominal walls, or to the relaxed 
state of these walls, or to distressing flatulence, the abdomen often 
becomes very protuberant or pendulous, in which case a light, elastic 
abdominal belt gives great comfort. 

The keeping of the skin in first-rate condition is a great point in the 
treatment of diseases at the change of life, for it throws additional work 
on the skin, by which at all times we lose weight. Daily tubbing in 
warm water is indispensable, and twice a week it is well to remain at 
least half an hour in a whole bath, at about 93 . Unusually prolonged 
gentle friction of the skin after the bath is of great use, although we do 
not precisely know how it relieves the nervous system. When there is a 
great tendency to perspiration, flannel should be worn immediately over 
the chemise, and over the night dress, when the patient perspires 
profusely in bed, otherwise she will be chilled by every change of 
position. 

ADVANTAGES OF EXERCISE. 

Exercise is useful at the change of life. 1st. It relieves the conges- 
tion of the internal organs, transferring the blood from them to the 
limbs, and if -the late-hour exercises of civilized life are dangerous to all, 
particularly the sanguine, gentle, regular, and long-continued exercise in 
the cool of the day is very beneficial. 

2d. It has a depletive effect, causing the skin to perspire more, and 
the kidneys to excrete more urea. It is well-known, that by substituting 
violent for moderate exercise, the quantity of urea in the urine passed 
afterwards may be found double that contained in the morning urine, 
and this may account for strong, plethoric women deriving benefit from 
exercise, carried to a certain degree of fatigue, as recommended by Auber. 

3d. Exercise acts by exhausting that redundant energy which, when 
unemployed, produces the fidgets, nervousness, and ill-temper. The long- 
walk, or the quick walk, at unaccustomed speed, which was wont to bring 
on menstruation, in a delicate woman, will, at the change, bring on back 
pain and feelings of pelvic distress and other symptoms of morbid 



216 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

menstruation. So very long walks are objectionable, and they are likely 
to aggravate uterine congestion, piles, and varicose veins. 

Driving is, of course, excellent, but horse exercise should be left off 
till after cessation ; indeed, its utility in favoring the menstrual flow 
sufficiently warrants the discontinuance of the practice while the change 
is in full progress, for then it is likely to cause flooding, piles, and lucor- 
rhcea. It will be obvious that the preceding remarks do not apply when 
the change is characterized by great constitutional debility, for walking 
is often then impossible, and should only be gradually attempted. 

It cannot be too often repeated that nervousness, under some shade 
or type, may be expected at this period, and should be prevented by suit- 
ing the habits of life to the changes progressing. It is therefore suffi- 
cient to mention that the sufferings of this epoch will be increased by 
long dinners, balls and operas ; for, in addition to the numerous excite- 
ments to be there encountered, hot and impure air must be breathed. 
The susceptibility of the nervous system is shown by the danger of 
suddenly given bad news, or by the shock of any powerful impression ; 
and I will take my examples from the lower orders, whose nervous 
system is less excitable than that of their more favored sisters. 

CURIOUS EFFECT OF THE MIND ON THE BODY. 

M. N. was well and regular up to fifty, when she saw a neighbor's 
child severely burnt, and a dangerous flooding ensued. Hearing suddenly 
of the death of her husband brought on a severe flooding in S. L. In 
A. B. the menstrual flow suddenly stopped at forty-five, on her first real- 
izing that her husband was insane ; and in several instances has the 
news of the sudden death of a husband caused early and sudden cessation. 

Perhaps the most curious effect of the mind on the body at this 
period was lately published in a French journal. A highly nervous lady, 
aged forty-eight, had ceased to menstruate four years, when she attended 
a sister during a protracted and painful labor. A few hours after it was 
over, she was herself taken with similar pains and by flooding for several 
days. Three days after this ceased the breasts swelled and milky fluid 
came from the nipples. Boismont and others have likewise seen flooding 
at cessation produced by strong emotion or a sudden fit of anger. 

It is impossible to overvalue the importance of sleep, for long- 
continued sleeplessness is likely to produce insanity by habitually 
subjecting the mind to that increased intensity of feeling which takes 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 217 

effect in the darkness, the silence, and the solitude of night. It is aston- 
ishing in how much more lively a manner we are apt, in these circum- 
stances, to be impressed by ideas that present themselves than when the 
attention of the mind is dissipated and its sensibility in a considerable 
degree absorbed by the action of light, sound, and that variety of objects 
which, during the day, fully excite our external senses. 

In the first place, sleep should be courted by abstaining from excit- 
ing pursuits or amusements between the last meal and bed-time. This 
will be often sufficient, and will allow required remedies to act well and 
speedily. It should also be remembered that if cold sometimes causes 
insomnia, this is more frequently the result of the bad habit of so tightly 
shutting up bed-rooms that the air becomes foul and hot ; indeed, some 
say this insomnia is always to be cured by sleeping with the window 
open. Some cannot sleep while the process of digestion is going on, 
while others sleep better for a light supper, and very bad sleepers should 
have a cup of beef-tea or milk with a slice of bread and butter, on their 
night table, for taking one or the other will often give sleep to those who 
have been tossing about for hours. 

NERVOUS IRRITATION AND SLEEPLESSNESS. 

Sleep should not be too freely indulged in by those who are stout 
and who belong to the plethoric type ; thin and nervous women, on the 
contrary, may be encouraged to take as much as nature will give them, 
even a siesta after meals may be allowed, as sleep is for them the best 
restorative, and an anti-spasmodic of heroic force. In obstinate sleep- 
lessness depending upon nervous irritation, a warm bath before bedtime 
is often as serviceable at the change of life as in infancy. 

Traveling is a great strengthener of the nervous system, for it places 
the patient in entirely new circumstances, every one of which makes a 
fresh call on her attention, solicits her interest, captivates her faculties, 
and completely leads her from trains of thought to which she had been 
long and painfully enchained. In addition to this, exercise of various 
kinds being willingly taken, gives increased vigor to the muscles, and 
therefore to the brain. 

The mind is consoled by the probability of recovering health at some 
agreeable watering-place; it feels safe under the guidance of medical 
authority, and resumes peace and tranquility. Indeed, all that has been 
said in praise of baths, exercise, and the advantage ot light-hearted culti- 



218 THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 

vation of the pleasures of Nature, rather than of those of society, 
by women at the change of life, will clearly explain how their combina- 
tion may be made serviceable for the cure and prevention of disease at 
this epoch. 

I have already said that during the change of life the nervous system 
is so unhinged that the management of the mental and moral faculties 
often taxes the ingenuity of the medical confidant. Clever women often 
lose confidence in themselves, are unable to manage domestic or other 
business, and are more likely to be imposed on, either within or without 
the family circle. The disturbance of regular ovarian action during the 
first part of the change of life sometimes tells unfavorably on woman 
considered as a moral agent. 

PEEVISHNESS AND ILL-TEMPER. 

Her mode of dealing with the every-day occurrences of life may 
betray a want of principle, contrasting in a striking manner with her 
previous rectitude of conduct and a return to that untruthfulness which 
may have characterized puberty. There is often unusual peevishness 
and ill-temper, or fits of ungovernable anger, sometimes amounting to 
moral insanity. After having lived in a most exemplary manner up to 
the change of life, women have deserted husband and children for a scamp, 
while others only stay at home to make it intolerable by their tyrannical 
conduct, and hate the long-cherished objects of their affection. Some 
become most miserable pictures of melancholy self-corrosion, sitting in 
silent and gloomy seclusion, neither loving nor hating, only wishing to 
be left alone to chew the cud of baleful introspection. Some in the 
midst of affluence talk poor and indulge a propensity for stealing. 

Women have confessed to me that they were obliged to have their 
children removed for fear they should murder them ; while others commit 
suicide. Unless there be some strong hereditary taint all such cases 
of moral insanity can be cured by judicious treatment, and when the 
change of life is passed the habitual rectitude of moral action often 
returns. With regard to such cases, the family doctor will have a very 
difficult part to play. If he has the courage to give wise advice he 
runs the risk of being dismissed ; if he lets things drift, he is sure to 
be deservedly abused a little later. 

He will have to explain to the patient's relatives that although 
the nervous system may be, for a time, unhinged, it would be 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 219 

cruel to consider as confirmed insanity the strangeness of temper, 
the fitfulness of spirit, the perversion of character, which, after some 
months, may considerably abate or entirely disappear. He may have 
to advise the removal of his patient from home excitement and troubles. 
A married lady may be no longer fit to manage a large family, her 
injudicious orders may wake up a spirit of resistance that tells painfully 
on herself. An elder sister at the head of a household may so upset 
her sisters and dependents, by fits of passion or by weeks of sullen 
silence, that they cannot help retaliating, which makes her worse. 
Removal from home is the first thing to be done in such cases. 

At no time do women require so much j udicious management and 
intelligent sympathy from friends, and the support of some strong 
mind in whom faith is placed. It is certainly surprising that a stout 
lady, in excellent bodily health, eating heartily, should be put out by 
trifles, be low spirited, fretful and quarrelsome for the slightest worry or 
mental exertion , and be laid up with a severe attack of cerebrial neuralgia 
if the exertion be persevered in ; but such cases are occasionally met with, 
and they may last one, two, or more years, after which the patient may 
recover her right tone of mind. 

GETTING WELL TOO SOON. 

Premature efforts to resume the usual active habits of life increase 
the frequency and severity of these attacks of cerebral neuralgia, and 
compromise the chance of ultimate recovery. It cannot well be wondered 
at that the full conviction that age has stamped a woman with its irrevoc- 
able seal, should cast a gloom over the imagination; but a well-trained 
mind will soon adapt itself to a new state, and take comfort from the 
knowledge that this epoch proclaims an immunity from the perils of child- 
bearing and the tedious annoyances of a monthly restraint. When the 
change is effected the mind emerges from the clouds in which it has 
seemed lost. 

Thankful that they have escaped from real sufferings, women cease 
to torture themselves with imaginary woes, and as they feel the ground 
grow steadier under foot, they are less dependent on others, their mental 
faculties then assuming a more masculine character. The change of life 
does not give talents, but it often imparts the power to bring out more effec- 
tively talents that have been lying in abeyance. Doubtless the subsidence 
of ovarian action deprives one form of love of those emotional impulses 



220 THE CHANGE OF UFE. 

which gift the passion with surprising energy ; but even when at last the 
heart becomes capable of listening to reason, love still rules paramount 
in the breast of woman, and whether called charity, friendship, conjugal 
or maternal affection, it still engrosses the thoughts, and failing all other 
forms and opportunities of love, religion often takes then a stronger hold, 
crowning the evening of life with unanticipated happiness. 

The natural good sense of many will teach them how the notion that 
after this period life is not worth living, is a pagan idea, suited to the 
position allotted to women in Greece and Rome, where they were seldom 
considered worth more than to amuse men and to bring forth children, 
but unworthy of women emancipated by Christianity. They might be 
shown that the importance of their position after the great change may be 
inferred by the length of life allotted to them after its occurrence, and the 
singular immunity from disease which is often observed after that period. 

CHARMS OF MATURE LIFE. 

Besides a vast improvement in health, it must not be thought that 
the change of life implies the loss of all personal attractions. There is a 
beauty about childhood seldom making a vain appeal for fostering care ; 
the beauty of youth fascinates ; that of mature age excites admiration ; 
but, in many women there is, long after the change of life, an autumnal 
majesty so blended with amiability, that it charms all who approach within 
its magic circle. To those fired with ambition, it may be safely said that 
the home government of society, from the highest to the lowest of our 
social strata, offers a wide field of employment to women after this period 
of life. 

Many never think of cultivating their minds until they find their 
influence fading with their charms, and then set about acquiring a less 
perishable empire by employing this period of freedom in literary pursuits. 
Others govern with discretion that circle of society, limited or extensive, 
in which they have been placed, becoming the guides, the supports and 
mainstays of both sexes in the difficulties of life. Indeed, it would not 
be too much to say that the discordant elements of society can never be 
blended without the authority willingly conceded to the combined influ- 
ence of age and sex. 

This brings me to the noblest motive of the laudable ambition of 
woman — that of doing the greatest amount of good to the greatest number 
of their fellow-creatures. Those who have attained their sunset without 



THE CHANGE OF LIFE. 221 

having been granted the anxious, though desirable, vicissitude of wedded 
life, even if destitute of relatives, or unfortunate in friendship, may still 
find, in the various forms of unmerited affliction which fill our country 
cottages, or the hovels of our populous cities, that whereon to expend a 
warmth of feeling, an energy of self-sacrifice, which the sophisticated state 
of society has not permitted to flow into their natural and more grateful 
channels. 

The most distressing appeals to medical sympathy are made by those 
who, when unnerved by the change of life, find themselves left alone in 
the world, bereft, when most needed, of the solace of filial piety, or the 
supporting sympathy of conjugal affection. One can only at first respond 
to such appeals with a sympathizing look and a silent pressure of the 
hand ; but when despair finds vent in tears, lightening the suffering spirit 
of half its load, sweeping away disquietude and doubt, and the too great 
bitterness of sorrow, then it may be hinted that time steals even sorrows 
from the heart, and that after a period of gradual adaptation to new 
circumstances, there will still remain the calm, pleasant and grateful 
remembrance of past happiness, whereas it was once thought that life 
would be intolerable without the daily ministrations of impassioned love. 

Here, again, the best mode of affording relief, should strength 
permit, is to discover some kind of occupation capable of engrossing the 
sufferer's attention, such as music, gardening, the education of a relative 
or an adopted child, or work in a school, or some other charity. 

The continued friction of social duties will, in time, restore peace and 
tranquility to the troubled spirit, and every effort should be made, in such 
cases, to prevent brooding and self-absorption, for the mind may gaze so 
long upon itself and its inner workings, that the moral vision may 
become affected with the same kind of disorder which befalls the bodily 
eye when fixed too long on one color; surrounding objects then lose 
their real appearance, to shine only with unnatural tints. 



>(<^vfe-5>. 









CHAPTE 



AMENORRHCEA means absence of the menses, and is therefore 
used as the generic term for the three disorders, suppressed, 
retained, and delayed menstruation, although each is distinct 
from the others, having causes and effects peculiar to itself. 
Many of the symptoms of these disorders are alike, but a close and 
comparative examination will show the distinctive features of each, the 
knowledge of which is important to a proper discrimination in the selec- 
tion of the means to avert them. 

Delayed Menstruation. — By this term might be understood a 
tardy appearance of the usual flow ; but in this connection it is used to 
mean the non-appearances of the menses at the time of life when it is 
reasonable to suppose they should be manifested. In warm latitudes this 
climateric change would occur from the tenth to the fourteenth year, in 
temperate ones from the twelfth to the sixteenth, and in northern regions 
from the fourteenth to the eighteenth. When these periods in the life of 
girls pass away, taking into consideration the respective latitudes, and 
this process of puberty is not manifested, menstruation has been 
unreasonably delayed, and becomes, therefore, a subject of great interest 
and solicitude. 

Menstruation may be impossible, as in the case of congenital 
malformation in which the ovaries, the womb, or the vagina, are absent ; 
or, in cases of disorganization from violent inflammations in which adhe- 
sions of the walls of the vagina, or of the mouth of the womb, have 
taken place ; in the case of imperforation of the hymen. These cases 
are rare, but they do sometimes occur. 

The causes more common for this delay are, however, constitutional 
rather than organic, and generally yield to hygienic and medical treat- 
222 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 223 

ment. There are instances in which a tendency to a late establishment 
of this function is hereditary, and others which show the delay to have 
been brought about by external influences — by inappropriate modes of 
living, faulty education, etc. But it is often the consequence of a 
lymphatic temperament, of a scrofulous and weakly constitution, in 
which vitality is below a healthy standard. The retardation of this 
natural process will, in these instances, aggravate the condition of the 
already suffering individual. 

When the non-appearance of the menses is due to the absence of the 
ovaries, or of the womb, the changes in the characteristics of the girl are 
rather masculine than feminine — in coarseness of features, skin, voice, 
etc. Such instances, although extremely rare, have been recorded. 

DELAY IN MENSTRUATION. 

When menstruation is delayed by constitutional or accidental causes, 
the girl retains all her feminine attributes, but looks immature and 
awkward ; she may experience, monthly, the premonitory symptoms, and 
yet menstruation not appear. Pain in the back and the groins, general 
lassitude, deranged appetite, nausea, headache, may be present for two or 
three days, then disappear, and return at about the same date, the next 
month. In girls inclined to consumption this delay is very significant ; it 
indicates so little vitality, such a morbid state of the system, as to disable 
some of her most important organs ; it is a condition which portends 
mischief for the future, and which, when accompanied by a cough, short 
breathing, hoarseness, sore throat, or pains in the chest, may be taken as 
something for immediate and careful attention. 

Hygienic Treatment. — The treatment should be simply hygienic, 
unless the general health is so impaired as to require a medical one. For 
all amenorrhcea, but particularly for that class induced by scrofulous 
constitution or by a lymphatic temperament, a regimen that is calculated 
to give tone to the general system is all that is needed. 

The girl should be taken from school, from all debilitating influ- 
ences, such as bad air and poor diet, from the exciting and exhausting 
scenes of city life, and sent to the county, to the mountains or sea-shove. 
to breathe pure air, rich in oxygen ; take daily exercise and have sun- 
shine and nourishing food. A season of this kind has brought many an 
enfeebled girl to a state of vigor and health which would before have 
seemed almost impossible. 



224 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

Beware of forcing-medicines ; of drugs that have been known to 
perform " miracles." Do not forget that amenorrhcea is not in itself a 
disease, but the symptom of a disease ; that the administering of a drug 
to enforce menstruation, would, in such a case, be as logical as the 
attempt to prevent the fall of a house by removing the bricks that 
crumble from it. Moreover, at that time, when the system labors under 
some unknown difficulty, a drug may greatly add to the complication. 

Suppression. — Before treating of this topic it may be necessary to 
explain the pathological difference between suppression and retention. 
" Suppression '' is the failure of nature to perform the process of menstru- 
ation; while in " retention " nature has performed the process, but for 
some reason, probably mechanical, the blood is not permitted to flow out, 
and is arrested within the chamber of the uterus. As an illustration, 
suppose a reservoir from which water is expected to flow : at a given time, 
you open the spigot and no water comes. You at once inquire, What is 
the obstacle ? You examine the reservoir and find no water in it ; the 
usual stream has failed to feed it ; it is a case of suppression. 

SPECIAL TREATMENT NEEDED. 

But if, on examining into the cause of the non-appearance of water, 
you find the reservoir is full, you come to the conclusion that, the stream 
having supplied it, the obstruction is in the spigot ; it is a case of 
retention. 

The failure of an organ to perform its functions should not properly 
be regarded as a distinct malady, requiring special treatment ; but in 
view of the importance of the function of menstruation, and the quantity 
of fluid excreted, Suppression may become the immediate cause of grave 
disease, and therefore, requires particular attention. 

The cause of suppression may be divided into pre-disposing and acci- 
dental. The pre-disposing causes depend upon the constitution of the 
individual, her organization of the uterine organs, temperament, and 
degree of sensibility of the genital organs. When a pre-disposition exists, 
immediate causes will act as auxiliaries in producing suppression, and 
these are : poor nourishment, the use of acid beverages, a sedentary life, 
too much sleep, unhealthy habitations, over-work, late hours, or the use 
of articles of a stimulating nature, as rich viands, aromatic substances, 
and alcoholic fluids ; also, moral affections, such as sadness, grief, disap- 
pointment, etc. ; debilitating maladies anterior to the suppression, such as. 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 225 

hemorrhages and other excessive evacuations ; the use of astringent 
medicines, and the repression of the calls of nature. 

Among the accidental causes we find sudden exposure to cold and 
humid air, when the body is over-heated ; partial or general immersion of 
the body into cold water, icy cold drinks, abstraction of blood, either 
professionally or accidentally ; a wound, a blow, a burn, a fall, an excess- 
ive pain, a strong odor, a great mental shock, powerful drugs, an irritated 
stomach. 

Any of these accidental causes, occurring at a time when menstrua- 
tion should appear, might induce suppression. The maladies following 
a suppression from accidental causes are generally acute, such as fevers, 
inflammations, etc. ; while those resulting from simple pre-disposing 
causes are likely to be gradual, chronic, but progressive. 

LIABILITY TO SUPPRESSION. 

The liability to this suppression varies in different women ; those 
who are pre-disposed to it through an inherited idiosyncracy, or who have 
incurred the habit, have been subjected to a suppression by the slightest 
cause, such as even the change of linen ; while those who are not so 
pre-disposed have exposed themselves to all the above mentioned causes 
with impunity. 

Suppression is generally attended by the following symptoms : heat, 
heaviness or pain at the small of the back, extending sometimes to the 
end of the spine, and to the groins. The last vertebra may be so sore as 
to make it impossible to retain a sitting posture. Not unfrequently the 
pains of the abdomen are short and shooting, attended by swelling and 
tightness ; the breasts also, sympathetically affected, become tumified and 
painful, and yield a white fluid often mistaken for milk. 

When the suppression is long continued, the whole system responds 
to the unnatural condition ; the appetite is lost, or replaced by a desire to 
eat strange things ; the irritable stomach rejects food, or is troubled by 
nausea ; the heart, oppressed, is subject to palpitations ; the head is full 
and heavy, and oftentimes excruciatingly painful ; the ears ring with 
strange sounds ; the intestines, in their turn, are irritated, producing 
diarrhoea or dysentery ; the bladder, the next neighbor to the womb, 
shares in the general derangemeut, causing frequent and difficult 
urinations. 

This condition fiualfy induces general lassitude, sadness or malaise. 
15 



226 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

Women thus affected give external evidence of their condition by their 
faces becoming pale and puffed, their flesh flabby, their movements 
languid ; they yield easily to moral influences, and become morose or 
melancholy. This debilitated and depraved condition makes them prone 
to neuralgia, hysteria, hypochondria, glandular enlargements, eruptions 
of the skin, etc. ; to dropsical effusions, partial or general, manifested in 
the eye-lids, in the feet, in the pleura — the membrane around the lungs, 
in the pericardium around the heart, or in the entire skin surrounding 
the body. 

The severest symptoms are more liable to occur when the suppres- 
sion is sudden, and in subjects of lymphatic temperament; also in those 
of nervous and sanguine temperament, who have been subject to profuse 
menstrual discharge before the accidental suppression. 

The indispositions that follow suppressions generally diminish in 
intensity, or entirely disappear, during the intervals between the menstru- 
ating periods, but are prone to increase during the time that menstruation 

should appear. 

CAUSES AND DURATION. 

The effect of suppression depends upon its causes a*nd duration. 
When induced by slight causes their removal is sufficient for the restora- 
tion of normal menstruation. Again, it sometimes happens that the 
woman's system adapts itself to a continued suppression "without incur- 
ring serious consequences. 

Yet the consequences are generally serious, and if continued beyond 
what might be reasonably expected from an accidental cause, medical 
counsel should be secured without delav. 

Nature, oppressed by the retention of a fluid that should be monthly 
eliminated by the womb, attempts other means to obtain relief; thus 
hemorrhages of the nose, of the lungs, of the hemorrhoidal veins, have 
periodically occurred in place of the more natural process of menstruation ; 
such hemorrhages are called a vicarious." 

Menstruation is suspended during pregnancy of course. The excep- 
tions of this rule are so few and rare as to need no special mention here. 

Self-Examination. — One cannot look at the array of symptoms 
mentioned to describe this disease without being appalled at the possible 
consequences of suppressed menstruation. We trust that the description 
will not discourage the reader from examining for herself the condition 
in which she may be ; on the contrary, we hope that her interest has been 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 2^7 

awakened in a subject the knowledge of which may give her health, and 
protect her from disease. 

She should commence her inquiry by contrasting her former condi- 
tion with the present one, and ask : " Am I of a scrofulous or lymphatic 
temperament ? was my usual condition a feeble, languid, or torpid one ? 
was my appetite good, and my digestion normal ? was my menstruation 
regular and sufficient ? have I had any serious illness of the stomach, 
lungs, bowels, or spine? has anything ever occurred to cause me poignant 
grief or mental shock ? is my disease traceable to any moral or physical 

affection ? " 

CONTINUED SUPPRESSION. 

Supposing her to be able to answer No, to these queries, the question 
still arises : What suppressed the menses ? Did they stop suddenly ; or 
fail to come when expected ? Allowing an affirmative answer to either of 
the last, her endeavor should then be to discover the cause. Has she had 
a fright ? Is she nursing a grief or disappointment, has she exposed 
herself to wet, or to sudden cold, has she over-worked, etc. ? Satisfied 
with her own answers to these, then the question should arise in her 
mind : What will be the probable result of this suppression ? The 
answer will depend upon whether the suppression is accidental or habit-' 
ual. If accidental, menstruation may return when due -without any 
ill-consequence ; if habitual, the consequence may be very serious. 

Amenorrhoea is not necessarily a grave malady, unless complicated 
with great constitutional disturbance, or dependent upon some remote 
disease ; isolated and recent, it may prove but a delay. Having taken all 
the above into consideration, having made a satisfactory examination of 
her own condition and determined the causes of the suppression, the 
patient may be able to decide whether it is in her power to obviate the 
causes and remedy the evil, or whether she should give herself up to the 
better judgment of a medical counselor. 

Hygienic Treatment. — The prescription of drugs should be left 
to the medical attendant, who alone is capable of prescribing for each 
individual case, every one having a decided individuality. Especial 
caution must be here given against the use of menstrual nostrums 
loudly proclaimed to " do the business " at short notice without failure. 
It is particularly against newspaper advertisements of miraculous cures 
that we warn the patient. Respectable physicians never advertise their 
treatment or themselves. 



228 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

The quack's circular may describe your case precisely, because such 
cases are common and well described in books ; that description which has 
attracted your attention, which has been taken from estimable authors, is 
the trap into which he desires you to fall. If you need medicine, apply 
to a physician well known not only for skill, but integrity. 

Again, you should be cautioned against any " panacea " of old 
women ; however honorable their intention, they are not able to prescribe 
for your case. Forcing-medicines may prove most disastrous ; in forcing 
the womb to menstruate, inflammations, already existing, may be so 
aggravated as to put life in danger. A properly regulated regimen will 
not only prevent amenorrhcea, but in many instances cure it. 

REMEDIES OF PROVED VALUE. 

Simple cases of suppression, originally depending upon debility and 
a lymphatic temperament, and occasioned by poor nourishment, ill-ventil- 
ated and damp apartments, should be treated with a generous diet pf 
roasted or broiled meats, wines, etc.; the patient should practice dry fric- 
tions over the body, dress warmly, and take moderate exercise. A trip to 
the mountains or to the sea-shore, a few rides on horseback, a wholesome, 
fortifying diet, have often been enough to bring roses to the pallid cheeks 
of girls. In another case, if the subject is of strong sanguine temperament, 
nourishment should be of the lightest kind, beverages of water, and rest 
imperative. 

It should be remembered that the tendency of menstruation is to reap- 
pear ; that in due time nature makes the effort to re-establish it ; it is 
then, therefore, that the means to assist it should be employed, that foot- 
and hip-baths of hot water are particularly efficient. 

Suppression induced by exposure to cold or dampness, or by checked 
perspiration, should be treated with warm drinks while in bed, for the 
purpose of restoring the action of the skin. When caused by mental 
impressions, as anger, grief, fright, jealousy, etc., a general warm bath 
will quiet the nervous system, and establish harmony between the relative 
functions of the mind and the bodily organs. 

If the suppression is accompanied by an excess of pain, warm hip- 
baths, local application of hop poultices, hot, will be very useful. When 
suppression resists all treatment, a change of climate, a long journey by 
sea, may prove efficacious. 

When the condition is dependent upon' moral causes, great sagacity 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 229 

will be required on the part of the parents and the medical attendant, for 
as long as that state exists all the drugs of the pharmacy will be used in 
vain ; but journeys, change of scene or surroundings, pleasurable distrac- 
tions will be the only means of restoring health to the patient. 

The use of spring waters, particularly the ferruginous (partaking of 
iron), and sea-baths may, however, prove of great benefit to persons of 
lymphatic temperament. In cases where mental exaltation in affairs of 
love is the cause of the suppression, marriage has proved permanently 
curative. 

Such is the treatment in all simple cases ; when complications with 
remote maladies of a serious nature exist, the case should be referred to 
a physician. 

Retention. — We come now to consider cases of Retention. The 
pathological difference between retention and suppression has been 
described above. The ovaries and the uterus have performed their func- 
tions, but the blood exuded within the chamber of the womb finds no 
exit. This is a dangerous and painful malady, and if no means are 
ready at hand to relieve the womb of the blood collected therein, even life 
may be put in danger. 

DUE TO ORGANIC CAUSES. 

The causes that may induce such retention are various and peculiar ; 
they may be organic, as, when the mouth of the womb is closed by adhe- 
sions, and when the hymen is imperforated ; instances are on record 
where the vagina was even found entirely absent. Such cases of adhe- 
sion however, are exceedingly rare, but may be induced by repeated 
inflammation of those organs, and by the treatment with caustics. When 
the closure is complete, there can be no flow whatever ; but when incom- 
plete, the flow is scanty, slow, difficult and painful. 

Retention however, is generally induced by spasmodic closure of the 
womb, which yields easily to proper treatment. When the entire men- 
strual fluid is retained, the womb becomes distended and very painful ; 
the distension increases every month, until, if not removed, it may burst 
the womb itself. Flexions of the womb (that is, the womb bending upon 
itself,) the pressure of any tumor, may induce complete or partial 
retention. 

The symptoms of retention are like those of painful menstruation, 
but greatly intensified ; the pains in the lower part of the abdomen are 



230 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

intensely severe and acute ; they are of a forcing, bearing-down nature, 
pressing towards the bladder, causing frequent and difficult urinations. 
Under this great stress the nervous system becomes excited, producing 
chills, headache, hysteria, and sometimes even convulsions. 

It is evident that the nature of retention is so grave, that none but a 
skillful physician is qualified to treat it. When retention is the conse- 
quence of spasmodic closure of the neck of the womb, and the patient has 
been so informed by her physician, very hot hip-baths, or a drink of 
warm water, such as would produce vomiting, will relax the muscular 
fibers, and give prompt relief to the patient. 

It is scarcely needful to say more regarding this subject, as every 
case requires the most thorough investigation, and the most careful treat- 
ment of a physician. 

SIGNS OP CHLOROSIS. 

Chlorosis (" Green Sickness.") — Chlorosis is not properly a disease 
of the generative organs of woman, and would have no place in this 
volume were it not that amenorrhoea is invariably connected with it. It 
is a disorder characterized by intense paleness of the skin, lips, and the 
lining membrane of the eye-lids ; it is a paleness having a greenish hue, 
(from which the disease takes its name) ; at times the color is yellow, 
when it is often mistaken for jaundice. The noticeable and peculiar pale- 
ness of the lips and of the membrane over the eye-ball are almost 
infallible evidence of chlorosis. 

Pathologically, the disease is distinguished by a lack of red globules 
in the blood, which seems as if turned to water ; and the transfusion of 
that water through the veins into the cellular tissue causes dropsy of the 
face, of the feet, or of the whole body ; it is this dropsical condition that 
gives the " puffy " appearance. This disease, when continued, gradually 
weakens the patient, whose system under the general ansemia becomes 
deranged. 

The appetite is lost or perverted to a desire for strange things, such 
as slate-pencils, chalk, dirt, salt, charcoal, pepper, vinegar, pickles, lemon 
juice, etc. ; then a sensation of weight oppresses the stomach, digestion 
is retarded, giving rise to evolution and eructation of gas ; the respiration 
becomes labored, and palpitations of the heart are induced by the 
slightest exercise or mental excitement. This low condition predisposes 
the patient to neuralgia, which may affect the head, the neck, the eyes, 
the back, or any part of the body. 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 231 

Chlorosis consists, essentially, of a watery state of the blood ; the 
red globules being wanting, death-like pallor and weakness ensue, the 
menstrual and fecal discharges are suppressed. It is useless to discuss 
here the various theories advanced by pathologists regarding the exact 
nature of this disease ; they disagree on this point, but concur that the 
almost constant absence of menstruation during the course of the disease 
is not the cause, but the consequence. 

Chlorosis generally occurs at puberty, just before menstruating, 
although both married women and those who have menstruated have been 
affected by it. 

A young girl in excellent health and color suddenly loses the roses 
of her cheeks, becomes intensely pale, loses her vitality, is tormented by 
notions and apprehensions ; her cherry lips and the white of her eyes 
become greenish white. Soon her stomach shows irritability, refuses 
food or tolerates it with difficulty. Daily she grows weaker and more 
nervous, sleeps little and has frightful dreams. 

Now and then she complains of neuralgic pains in various parts of 
the body ; she is moody, sensitive, hysterical. Spasms, convulsions, St. 
Vitus's Dance, epilepsy, may overtake her; the menses are suppressed, 
but she will probably be troubled with bleeding from the nose, of watery 
blood. Her heart jumps at the slightest cause ; her breathing is 
oppressed. She has chlorosis. 

This disease is generally curable, particularly when it does not 
occur in women of vitiated constitutions, and who have not been exposed 
for a considerable time to deprivation of healthy diet and pure, dry 
air. The danger of this malady lies in the organic diseases that may 
follow. Some of which are : valvular disease of the heart, dropsy, 
paralysis, hcemorrhages, consumption. The appearance or reappearance 
of the menses is the most reliable sign of the return of strength and 
health, and of a complete recovery. 

The causes that predispose to this affection are strong mental emo- 
tions, fright, love, sexual excitement, masturbation, insufficiency or 
inferiority of food ; residence in damp, close, unlighted, unventilated 
localities. 





CHAPTER XIX. 



LOOD discharged at one menstrual crisis varies 
in different women, and sometimes in the same 
subject ; yet every woman has a knowledge of 
her average of flow, either as regards quantity 
or duration. When she discharges more in the 
same length of time ; when her periodical flow is 
prolonged beyond her usual time ; when it recurs 
oftener than once a month, and the amount 
passed away in the month's cycle is beyond the 
usual quantity expected from the individual, the 
woman is said to be afflicted with menorrhagia. 
Naturally woman menstruates once in every four weeks, 
allowing a few exceptions who menstruate oftener without 
ill-consequences ; the quantity lost each time is estimated to- 
be about six ounces ; the usual duration four or five days. 
Suppose, then, a girl to menstruate twice a month, each time a regular 
quantity ; another, to menstruate in a regular manner as to periodicity 
and length of time, but secreting a much larger quantity ; another, flow- 
ing not immoderately but continuously for ten or twelve days : it becomes 
evident that in each and every such case the loss of blood is in excess of 
the usual habit, requiring attention and treatment lest the general health 
become seriously affected from the unwonted drain. 

In menorrhagia the quantity must be an unusual one for the person 
complaining, as some young women may discharge ten or twelve ounces 
regularly and yet be in a normal condition ; while in others a discharge 
of eight or ten ounces would be considered unusually superabundant, 
and therefore menorrhagic. The normal individual quantity depends upon 
individual constitution and temperament. There are women who also 
naturally menstruate twice a month, or once in three weeks, but in quan- 
232 



DISEASES OE WOMEN. 233 

titles that, if added together, do not yield a total in excess of what is 
natural and usual ; hence not hemorrhagic. 

An inordinate flow occurs generally in women of sanguine tempera- 
ment, whose hearts' impulse is strong and whose circulation is free. This 
temperament predisposes to determination of blood, and it is therefore 
reasonable to suppose that the womb, under the seasonable stimulus, may 
receive and discharge an abundant quantity of menstrual fluid. It is 
seldom, however, that an excessive flow occurs, unless a debilitating cause 
exists. The sanguine temperament, exuberant in action, may overreach 
its limits of vital powers, and terminate in debility. 

Again, where the passions are strong and exposed to over-excitation, 
reflex action might determine blood to the generative organs and induce 
congestions that nature relieves by a profuse menstruation. 

HOW THE SYSTEM IS WEAKENED. 

Luxury, indolence and indulgence enervate the human system, 
however strong ; and, therefore, it not seldoms happens that a person of 
sanguine temperament is comparatively weaker than another who mani- 
fests less exuberance of constitutional vitality. Some morbid stimulus 
has exhausted the vital powers, destroyed the tone of tissues, induced 
anaemia, and relaxed the walls of the womb, on account of which the blood 
flows without restraint. Therefore, although a woman of sanguine 
temperament may be expected to discharge a larger quantity of menstrual 
fluid than one of a lymphatic temperament, yet, when the quantity is 
increased much beyond the habitual flow, a cause for the abnormal condi- 
tion must exist which should be investigated and removed. 

Menorrhagia is common also among women of nervous, irritable 
temper; in those who are corpulent and of indolent habits, and those who 
live in hot climates or who occupy rooms having a high temperature ; it is 
also an hereditary predisposition ; and, whatever its source, it is generally 
aggravated during the summer season. 

Beside the constitutional tendency, there are accidental causes which 
may induce immoderate menstruation, among which are the following : 
exposure to excessive heat or cold ; violent exercise, particularly on hot 
back and over rough roads ; abuse of medicines intended to force menstru- 
ation ; abuse of stimulants and of the pleasures of the table ; a fall ; 
lifting weights ; mental excitement, such as fright, anger, jealousy, love, 
ambition, etc. 



234 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

Reliable authorities insist that inenorrhagia is invariably due to 
irritation and inflammation of the womb or ovaries ; that the disease is 
local and not constitutional ; that the morbid sensitiveness, the weakness, 
the moral and mental disturbances present in this disease are not causes, 
but effects of the excessive loss of vital fluid and of the uterine irritation 
communicated by reflex action. Others, quite as reliable, honestly differ 
from the above, and assert that in many instances this malady is induced, 
not by local, but by constitutional causes. We are of the opinion of the 
latter, and advise the patient to consult the medical man, who, upon due 
investigation, will determine the causes affecting the special case brought 
to his notice. 

CAUSES OF HEMORRHAGE. 

Hemorrhage should not be confounded with menorrhagia, although 
the latter implies a hemorrhage^ both meaning a flow of blood ; but 
menorrhagia is associated with menstruation, while simple hemorrhage 
is not. In other words, menorrhagia is either a too profuse, too prolonged, 
or too rapid recurrence of the menstrual flow; while hemorrhage may 
occur at any time from the womb, the lungs, etc., and from accidental 
causes. 

A hemorrhage of the womb may be a consequence of a blow, the 
application of a sharp instrument, pregnancy, labor, or abortion ; also 
the presence in the womb of a tumor or some destructive disease as 
ulceration or cancer ; it obeys no law of periodicity, but occurs at 
irregular periods and continues as long as the local lesion remains 
unchecked by active treatment ; and while it may be slight and harmless, 
it may also be profuse and immediately dangerous. Menorrhagia ma}^ 
in being prolonged and repeated, slowly deplete a person of blood, and 
thus withdraw so much of the vital force as to put life in peril ; but the 
process will be gradual, and afford time for repair, for treatment, and for 
protection against collapse. 

Menorrhagia may be active or passive, even nervous, or spasmodic. 
The active kind results from an excess, the passive from a deficiency, of 
vitality. In the first, plethora is made apparent by the animated face, 
the strong, full pulse, the highly colored cheeks, the brilliant eyes ; also 
by a liability to congestive headaches, feelings of general heat, rush of 
blood to the head, heaviness at the back of the stomach, heat and itching 
of the vagina. 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 235 

The second is marked by the lymphatic appearance and by paleness, 
anaemia, puffiness, indigestion, want of appetite, cravings for strange 
things, general debility, slow and weak pulse. The flow of the former 
will be of clear red blood, as if coming from a cut, while that of the 
latter is of lightly colored, watery blood. 

In a plethoric woman, an active flow may prove beneficial, and 
remove all the unpleasant feelings she complained of before its occur- 
rence ; but in a lymphatic, debilitated woman, even a passive flow will 
augment her weakness, and if continued induce fainting, dropsy, obscur- 
ation of vision, buzzing in the ears, dizziness, palpitation of the heart, 
discoloration of the skin, hysteria and possibly convulsions. 

The above should be sufficient to warn women that menorrhagia may 
be so complicated and grave as to require the counsel of the most skillful 
physician. A general and local examination should be made, so that no 
false assurance should lead the patient into fatal indifference, or add a 
useless anxiety to the mental burden already oppressing her. 

REMEDIES THAT ARE RECOMMENDED. 

Hygienic Treatment. — The hygienic treatment will depend upon 
constitution and temperament. In sanguine temperaments excited by 
mental causes, quiet, rest, light and unstimulating food should be 
enjoined; the moral disturbances removed. Entire change from the 
locality, the scenes and the companionship that excited the mind and the 
senses will prove highly beneficial. If mental labor, in the transaction 
of business, in the attainment of professional or literary success, in 
study, in gratifying ambition or pride, has been the cause, a complete 
remission or intermission of those pursuits will be necessary. 

The mind must rest adequately to its labor, else a nervous exhaus- 
tion will follow, that will lower the vital powers of ever)' organ of the 
body. A vegetable diet and acidulated beverages lessening the red 
globules of the blood and diminishing the over-action of the heart, will 
be found particularly useful in the plethoric persons. 

When menorrhagia is induced by anaemia, debility, constitutional 
or otherwise, or in consequence of malarial fevers or of diseases of long 
standing, the regimen recommended in amenorrhcea will be applicable to 
it. Moderately cold hip or entire baths are generally invigorating' to 
the feeble, particularly if quickly taken and followed by brisk frictions. 
They are useful also to women of sanguine temperament, who o 



236 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

remain longer in the cold bath, thns permitting abstraction of heat. In 
either case, care should be taken not to plunge into a cold bath immedi- 
ately before, during or immediately after menstruation. 

Menorrhagia depending upon inflammatory or structural diseases of 
the womb requires such positive and specific treatment as would be out 
of place in a volume of this character, and it is therefore properly 
referred to the care of the physician, who should be made acquainted 
with every detail connected with the case to enable him to prescribe with 
intelligence and skill. 

Dysmenorrhea (painful menstruation). — The suffering con- 
nected with this disorder is of the most intense and acute character ; and 
reflecting that a girl thus affected is monthly condemned to its recur- 
rence, each time prostrating her on a bed of agony, the hardest heart 
would deplore her destiny. 

CAPACITY TO ENDURE PAIN. 

But, probably, only the sufferer herself can realize that three or four 
days of writhing, wringing, cutting abdominal pains, returning once a 
month, is a penalty too severe, too cruel to be inflicted on a human being, 
were it even intended as a retribution for crime ; and when the torture is 
inflicted on an innocent girl, heart and mind rebel against the castigation. 

Yet thousands of unmarried women periodically bear this torture, 
smiling during the short intervals of ease that come between the spasms 
that seem to rend them. There is a pain-enduring capacity in woman 
that certainly man knows not of ; in the throes of labor she smiles in 
anticipation of gladness, in the racking pains of dysmenorrhcea she only 
prays for the hour of relief. It is that struggle between the moral and 
the physical from which woman comes out a heroine. 

But it is on this very account that our best efforts and greatest sym- 
pathy should be engaged in protecting and relieving her from such terri- 
ble fate. It is to be regretted that often the most energetic means have 
failed to relieve ; this failure is, however, generally due to a misconcep- 
tion of the origin and cause of the difficulty, and must be incurred when- 
ever the trouble is treated as an independent difficulty while it is but a 
symptom of a deeper and remote disease. 

Dysmenorrhcea is due very generally to inflammation or congestion 
of the ovaries or womb, yet it may be of neuralgic or rheumatic origin, 
or due to nervous irritability of the womb, the spasmodic strictures of its 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 237 

mouth interfering with a free flow of the menstrual fluid, causing partial 
retention and giving time to the blood to coagulate, each coagulation 
having to be thrust out by the contractile force of the womb. 

Menstruation suddenly suppressed by any accidental cause may 
become very painful and assume the form of dysmenorrhcea. During a 
high state of inflammation plastic lymph is sometimes exuded in the 
womb, organizing a pseudo-membrane like that of diphtheria or croup in 
the throat, passing off entire or in shreds, with the keenest pain. This 
has been styled " membranous dysmenorrhcea. " 

Malposition or flexion of the womb, tumors, or any mechanical 
obstruction may render menstruation difficult and painful. 

Women of sanguine and nervous temperament are predisposed to 
dysmenorrhcea, particularly when they indulge in indolence, rich food, 
ardent spirits, wines, the pleasures of the senses ; or are exposed to 
mental impressions of an exciting character. This disease affects espe- 
cially unmarried women, and marriage has often cured the disorder. 

AILMENTS OP OTHER ORGANS. 

The direct or accidental causes are manifold, for almost any shock to 
the system may induce dysmenorrhcea in subjects predisposed to it ; but 
moral disturbances, sudden transitions from heat to cold, or vice versa, 
any morbid affection of other organs, are pre-eminent causes of dysmen- 
orrhcea. 

The symptoms are of a very violent character ; they generally com- 
mence three or four days before menstruation, increasing in intensity 
until the flux is fairly established ; the erect posture aggravates them. 
They are as follows : pain in the back extending to the groins, and in 
the abdomen over the whole region of the womb as high as the naval, 
sometimes radiating down to the thighs. The pains gradually assume 
the spasmodic and colicky form, until they become unbearable ; the blood 
flows by drops and sometimes in little clots, or is accompanied by mem- 
branous shreds. 

In highly nervous temperaments the excitement is so great as to 
induce hysteria and even convulsions. Under this excitability of the 
generative organs the breasts swell and become painful ; gases are evolved 
in the abdomen, and a sensation of heat is felt in the vagina and the soft 
parts. The bladder sympathizes and urine is passed often, but with 
difficulty and a sensation of scalding. These symptoms may be premoni- 



238 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

tory and disappear as quickly as the flux appears ; but more often, if the 
flow is not free, they increase for twenty or thirty hours, and may not end 
till the end of the discharge. 

The flow is generally scanty, but may be profuse ; in the latter case, 
however, intermissions of suppression occur, during which the pains 
return with the usual severity ; this is especially the case in women of 
highly nervous organization, susceptible to every impression. Generally 
a free flow relieves the pains as if by magic. In very young girls the 
womb may not be sufficiently developed, in which case the disorder cannot 
be expected to be cured until that organ is grown to adequate proportions. 
The natural cavity of the womb is very small, not retaining more than 
fifteen or twenty drops of the fluid, so that it may be easily compre- 
hended that a very small quantity of blood may cause such distention as 
to induce excruciating pain. 

THE OVARIES ARE INVOLVED. 

When dysmenorrhcea recurs for many months and becomes habitual, 
it may gradually induce such disorganizations of the womb as to cause it 
to become permanently diseased, unless properly treated. 

Authors have differed regarding the causes of dysmenorrhcea ; we 
will quote one, who says : " Ordinarily, the primary and true seat of the 
morbid process, known as painful menstruation, is to be sought for in the 
highly irritated, congested, or inflamed condition of one or both ovaries, 
which condition is induced under a great variety of circumstances : from 
application of cold, from falls upon the knees or sacrum, from horseback 
riding, dancing, or long, fatiguing walks just previous to, during or 
immediately after the menstrual flow, from great muscular effort, as the 
lifting of heavy weights, from tight dresses, corsets, and the various 
bands and strings around the waist, preventing a free returning of the 
blood from the pelvis ; from retention or suppression of the catamenia 
(menses), from gouty or rheumatic habit, from solitary practices, etc ; " to 
which we add : from constipation, from mental excitement (particularly of 
the affections), from anger, fear, disappointment. 

To give a clearer view of this trouble in all its phases, we will divide 
it into classes, and give the principal characteristic of each ; we hope thus 
to enable the unprofessional reader to discern its several forms. 

Simple Dysmenorrhcea. This is an uncomplicated form of the disor- 
der, called a nervous " or " neuralgic." It is due to the morbid sensitive- 



DISEASES OE WOMEN. 239 

ness of the uterus or ovaries, and aggravated by mental excitement, expo- 
sure to heat or cold, over-fatigue, rheumatism, overloading the stomach, 
constipation, etc. Nervous-sanguine temperaments, girls subject to neur- 
algic or rheumatic affections, are more liable to it. The distinctive 
symptoms are found in the great sensitiveness of the uterine regions ; the 
girl cannot be touched by the hand without an increase of pain, and even 
the weight of her clothing seems unbearable. 

At the approach of the menstrual period, sensations of fullness^ 
weight and bearing down are felt at the vulva, and pains supervene which 
radiate to the bladder, the rectum and down the thighs. As the flow 
commences, the pains become more intense and spasmodic, often amount- 
ing to actual cramps, and simulating labor-pains. Women have been 
heard to exclaim, " I would rather give birth to a child than be subject 
monthly to these pains." Usually, after twelve or fifteen hours, when 
menstruation becomes fully established, the pains abate, passing gradually 
away, to the great relief of the patient ; but it does often occur that 
they last during the whole course of menstruation. 

CONDITION DURING INTERVALS. 

During the intervals, however, she is perfectly well, the parts not 
unnaturally sensitive, which is proof that there is no local inflammation. 
The suddenness of the attack, its severity aud paroxysmal character, its 
recurrence month after month without affecting the general health, should 
be accepted as evidences that the case is one of irritability of the uterus, 
and of a neuralgic form. 

Accidental Dysmenorrhea. This is also one of the simplest forms 
that may occur occasionally from hygienic errors on the part of the 
woman immediately previous to, or during, menstruation. Overfatigue, 
excitement, exposure to cold, may at such a time induce painful menstru- 
ation, which does not recur at the following period. 

Congestive Dysmenorrhea is generally distinguished from the others 
by the clots which pass during menstruation. Congestion is a rush of 
blood to the womb, and may be compared to the rush of blood to the 
head, causing apoplexy. The veins aud arteries are engorged, causing 
all the pains of dysmenorrhcea with all the concomitant nervous symptoms 
which are very severe, but generally of short duration. Vomiting, 
convulsions, hysteria, may occur during the stage of congestion ; but as 



240 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

soon as the blood flows sufficiently to relieve the overdistended vessels 
the symptoms disappear, and the patient is well. 

Inflammatory Dysmenorrhea. This is not a constitutional dysmen- 
orrhoea, but the result of an inflammation of the womb and ovaries. It 
does not commence at puberty, like the constitutional, but occurs at any 
time in married or unmarried women, when that morbid condition of the 
womb or ovaries exists. In this form the sufferings continue during the 
whole period of menstruation, leaving the region tender even after it. 
The whole system sympathizes with the local inflammation, and languor 
and anaemia follow, giving a general and continued evidence of physical 
deterioration. It is in this form of dysmenorrhea that the pseudo- 
membrane is formed, passing out of the womb in shreds with excruciating 
pains. There may be inflammatory dysmenorrhcea without the forma- 
tion of this membrane, but the presence of the membrane is always proof 
of inflammation. Inflammatory dysmenorrhcea is generally attended by 

fever. 

SYMPTOMS TO BE CONSIDERED. 

Mechanical or Physical Dysmenorrhea. This depends upon organic 
imperfection of the uterine neck, such as constriction; deformities of 
structure, or malposition of the womb ; thickening of the lining mem- 
brane induced by previous and repeated inflammations ; adhesions ; 
tumors ; and finally, closure of the vagina or imperfection of the hymen. 
The symptoms of this form do not differ in any high degree from the 
others, and it is therefore difficult to determine the form except by the 
close examination of the medical man. A tumor, if of any size, may be 
detected by the enlargement of the abdomen that does not subside after 
menstruation. 

The malposition of the womb may be suspected, if pain in the back, 
sensation of bearing down, desire to pass water often, and passing it with 
difficulty, or constant desire to evacuate the rectum without doing so, or 
when doing so passing a small, hard, compressed stool, continue to occur 
during the intervals between the menstruating periods. And the entire 
closure from imperforation of the hymen, or adhesions of the vagina or 
womb, may be prognosticated, if all the violent pains of periodical 
dysmenorrhcea occur, without any discharge of menstrual fluid. 

Authors give many varieties of dysmenorrhcea and do not always 
agree as to its pathology, or in the classification ; but the above may be 
sufficient to warn girls, that dysmenorrhcea may be or may result in 




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DISEASES OF WOMEN. 241 

formidable disease, and that, therefore, it needs their earnest efforts to 
prevent even the simplest forms ; and in difficult and complicated cases, 
their good sense should enable them to conquer their aversion to calling 
upon the physician for advice and treatment. 

Hygienic Treatment. — It must be evident even to the common 
reader that this disease, except in its simplest form, requires medical and 
surgical treatment ; and there is no disease where the rules of hygiene 
should be more strictly observed than in this. 

For young girls every means should be exercised that will assist in 
a proper and regular establishment of this function ; hence, when this 
process begins with pain, they should be taken from school and all places 
of occupation or confinement, from exciting scenes, and from mental 
labor ; the ambition to excel even in ordinary studies should be checked ; 
their life should be vegetative. Attendance at balls and theatres should 
be strictly forbidden, and the diet be of the blandest character and in 
conformity with the temperament. And, above all, care should be taken 
that an evacuation of the bowels be obtained every day, constipation 
being not only an aggravation but often the sole cause of the disorder. 

HOW MANY PERSONS OBTAIN RELIEF. 

It is very common for girls to seek relief from the suffering in 
intoxication. This remark may seem extravagant, yet we have known 
girls to take two ounces of pure brandy or whiskey at one dose, and 
declare that that was the only means by which to secure relief. This 
practice is dangerous — first, because if it is a case of inflammatory dysmen- 
orrhcea, the stimulant aggravates the disease ; secondly, if it is of the 
mechanical form of difficulty, the stimulus is useless ; thirdly, the habit 
of drinking may be acquired. 

There is no doubt that in some instances, and particularly in the 
neuralgic or simple forms, stimulants relieve ; yet it would be greatly to 
their advantage if women should confine their efforts during the inter. 
of ease to the observance of every care to prevent the recurrence of the 
disorder, and leave the active treatment to the physician. 

Opiates are also resorted to for the relief of this painful trouble, 
which are no less dangerous thau stimulants; and we dare assert, from 
our personal knowledge and that gathered from other physicians, that 
drunkenness and opium-eating in women are habits often contracted from 
the habitual recourse to these baneful kk remedies " during the pains of 
16 



242 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

dysmenorrhcea. We regret to say, moreover, that physicians have care- 
lessly encouraged those habits, thoughtless of the disastrous results, 
when they should instead have studied their cases thoroughly or turned 
them over to more skillful professional brothers if their own ability failed 
them. 

Moderation in all things, should be the rule of all women suffering 
from dysmenorrhcea. Rheumatic and neuralgic patients, as well as those 
of a lymphatic temperament, should dress warmly, and never be exposed 
to dampness or drafts of cold air ; those of a sanguine temperament 
should make frequent use of cold baths, taking the precaution to follow 
them quickly by brisk and hard dry rubbing ; but nervous and lymphatic 
temperaments will find the warm bath more conducive to their comfort. 

KEEPING THE BODY AT REST. 

During the three or four days just preceding the menses the body 
should be kept at rest in a reclined position, and every night a hot hip- 
bath should be taken before retiring. During the access of pain or 
spasms hot hip-baths, application of hot poultices to the abdomen, hot 
applications to the feet, mucilaginous — such as hot decoctions of hops, 
marsh-mallow, chamomile, etc., — and vaginal injections of warm water 
will afford relief. If the bowels are not free, they should be moved by 
warm enemas of water. No iced water, or very cold drinks of any kind, 
should be taken immediately before or during menstruation ; a mouthful 
of cold water has in many instances brought back all the pains that had 
been relieved by proper treatment. 

Leucorrhcea (" Whites ") — This disease, although not dangerous to 
life, is one of great discomfort and general debility. It consists of a flow 
of mucus from the genital organs, which varies according to the constitu- 
tional disturbance, and the locality and extent of the inflammation, being 
at times white (from which it takes its name), again bluish, yellowish, or 
red with blood ; at times inodorous, again fetid. The seat of the irrita- 
tion or inflammation may be in the walls of the vagina, the neck of the 
womb, the lining membrane of the womb itself, or the fallopian tubes. 

Leucorrhcea being a symptom of some constitutional disturbance 
rather than a disease, has been by medical men classified according to its 
original causes ; but in a work intended for the lay rather than the pro- 
fessional reader, a pathological classification would rather burden than 
assist in the compreheusion of its description. As a principal cause of 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 243 

leucorrhcea we must note the constitutional inheritance as found in lym- 
phatic subjects, ill-developed and feeble, generally known from their want 
of muscular vigor, their pallid faces, soft flesh, weak digestion, morbid 
and melancholic tendencies. Girls of such constitutions may manifest, 
even during infancy, leucorrhceal characteristics, probably excited by irri- 
tations induced by dentition, or by the presence of worms. 

External causes predisposing to this malady are sometimes found in 
the water of certain mineral springs, in the use of new beer, unripe fruit, 
milk diet, tea, and cafe-au-lait (coffee with milk). 

This last article of diet has, by a French author, been declared a very 
common cause of leucorrhcea among French women, who make daily use 
of it ; the same author asserting that in cases where women refrained 
from the use of that stimulant they were permanently cured of the annoy- 
ing discharge. Local irritations from the applications of instruments, 
the wearing of pessaries, or solitary habits of a vicious character have 
been found to be sources of this disease. 

EXPOSURE TO HEAT OR COLD. 

Not unfrequently leucorrhcea is induced by the suppression of some 
other malady, as a cutaneous eruption, rheumatism, gout, the suppression 
of a hemorrhoidal flux, a diarrhoea, or the milk in nursing women ; the 
healing of an old ulcer, the sudden check of a chronic cough. 

Again, and more often, it is the result of exposure to either heat or 
cold, insufficient or excessive exercise, dampness of the atmosphere, wet 
feet and damp clothing, badly ventilated apartments, insufficiency of light, 
malaria, poor nourishment, prolonged warm baths, medicated injections, 
obstinate constipation, rough travelling, riding a hard-trotting horse, 
inflammation of the womb or ovaries, uterine displacements or ulceration, 
abortions, and drugs intended to force menstruation. 

Fevers, and particularly miasmatic and scarlet fevers, measles, and 
smallpox often terminate in leucorrhcea, which is then called critical, and 
regarded as a favorable symptom. 

Of all the infirmities that afflict women, leucorrhcea is probably the 
most common ; it affects women of all ages and of all classes, but partic- 
ularly during the period of menstruation. It is, moreover, an intracta 
disease, difficult to cure, and one against which physicians have often 
exhausted their skill and patience in vain. 

The probable reason for their failure ma}' be that it has too often 



244 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

been treated as a disease per se (by itself) rather than as a symptom of 
disease. No intelligent person could attempt to treat an expectoration as 
a disease, and prognosticate that when the expectoration ceases the disease 
is cured. The vagina and uterus are lined by the same mucous membrane 
that lines the bronchial tubes, an excessive exudation from which would 
be an evidence of irritation or weakness. There is nothing extraordinary 
in leucorrhcea, for it is only the excess of a discharge that should always 
be present for the lubrication of the walls, that would otherwise adhere to 
each other. 

The quality of the discharge may vary just as does the quality of a 
bronchial discharge, both being dependent upon constitutional and local 
condition. 

And in consideration of the monthly excitement and congestion of 
the ovaries and uterus, it is not surprising that a debilitated condition of 
the general system, or other causes affecting the organs of generation, 
should often determine an irritation of the uterine and vaginal follicles, 
exciting them to exude an inordinate flow of mucus. 

COURSE OF THE DISEASE. 

Precursory Symptoms of Leucorrhcea. Heavy pains in the lower part 
of the abdomen and the small of the back ; distaste for articles of food ; 
lassitude ; itching of the private parts, which may be tumefied and pain- 
ful. This condition may be attended by dryness of the skin, fever and 
sleeplessness. Finally, mucous fluid escapes the vagina, varying in color 
and thickness. As the disease progresses the above symptoms are present 
in an aggravated form. 

Acute Leucorrhcea. This form may be distinguished from the chronic 
by its more severe but shorter course. 

When acute, the itching of the vagina may be so violent as to be 
almost unbearable ; the local irritation spreads to the surrounding parts 
and to the bladder, inducing a constant desire to urinate. Soon the char- 
acteristic discharge makes its appearance, accompanied by a sensation of 
heat and distension of the affected parts. 

For two or three days this condition becomes more and more aggra- 
vated; the discharge increases, and from white it turns to either yellow or 
green ; the inclination to urinate becomes more frequent, and the urine 
scalds ; the local inflammation grows more intense, the pain more severe 
and prolonged. In the course of eight or ten days the inflammatory 






DISEASES OF WOMEN. 245 

symptoms yield, however ; but the discharge is still on the increase, and 
becomes thicker and of a deeper color. In two or three days more, even 
these last symptoms abate, and the patient becomes conscious of great 
improvement. Finally, if no error is committed, in twenty or thirty days 
the patient gets entirely well. The course of this accidental leucorrhcea 
is therefore acute, severe and short. 

Chronic Leucorrhcea may be the continuance of an acute form in 
consequence of bad treatment ; aud its course then is very irregular, and 
its duration uncertain. In the chronic form the discharge is continuous ) 
although in some instances it intermits ; the acute inflammatory symptoms, 
such as the intolerable itching and the tumefaction of the parts, may not 
be present, or only in a slight degree ; the pains are less, more bearable, 
and intermittent ; the vagina less painful to the touch. 

EFFECT OF LONG CONTINUANCE. 

But this form, although not severe, slowly undermines the general 
health from its continuance ; the stomach takes up the sympathy, loses 
desire for food, or bears it unkindly, rejecting it at the slightest provoca- 
tion ; digestion, thus impaired, adds to the general bad condition, mani- 
fested by weariness, paleness or puffiness of the face, and indifference to 
pleasure ; the head partakes of the general anaemia, and dizziness, faint- 
ing and hysteria supervene ; the pulse becomes small and slow, and the 
perspiration scanty. 

The patient then is very susceptible to cold and to all mental 
impressions. 

There is also a transient form of leucorrhcea which may occur either 
before or after menstruation ; oftentimes induced by disordered stomach, 
but borne without much trouble or suffering, passing away with the adop- 
tion of a proper diet and the restoration of a good digestion. 

Leucorrhcea seems to replace in some instances the menstrual flux. 
It has happened that instead of the menses a certain quantity of white 
mucus has been excreted periodically and regularly every month, lasting 
four or five days and then disappearing. 

Intermit tent Leucorrhcea, arising from mechanical causes, yields easily 
to proper and preventive treatment; when, however, it is a result oi 
feeble, lymphatic and scrofulous constitutions, or of long duration, it 
may baffle the best efforts of medical art. 

The mode of life influences the tenacity of leucorrhcea. When long- 



246 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

continued it interferes with the regularity of menstruation, reducing its 
quantity and changing its quality ; it may even prevent the establish- 
ment of the menstrual functions at puberty. When it has existed for a 
long time and is suddenly arrested, the malady may be transferred to 
other organs, as the lungs, exposing them to pneumonia or to a develop- 
ment of consumption if the patient is scrofulous. 

In cases where there is a relaxation of the tissue of the vagina or of 
the muscles supporting the womb, this constant humidity tends to relax 
still more those tissues, thus forming displacements and falling of the 
womb. 

A disease of this character, depending upon so many different causes, 
and particularly upon hereditary and constitutional disturbances, appar- 
ently simple, amenable yet complicated, and fraught with danger, requires 
so much discrimination and clearness of judgment that it seems as if no 
one but the most competent physician should be allowed to examine and 
advise. 



TOO LITTLE ATTENTION GIVEN. 



Regarded, as it often is, as a light indisposition, too little attention 
is given to it, and the recommendation of incompetent persons too readily 
adopted ; it is probably due to this fact that leucorrhcea has been allowed 
to go on from year to year, until it has sapped the very foundation of a 
woman's health, and reduced her to a state of chronic valetudinarianism, 
or sacrificed her to the fatal effects of such diseases as ulceration or 
cancer. 

Hygienic treatment. The treatment of this disease should consist in 
the strict observance of the rules of hygiene ; for a regimen, adapted to 
the case, is truly of more importance than all the preparations of the 
pharmacopeia. The leucorrhceal tendency being more generally due to 
constitutional weakness than to any other cause, it follows that anything 
calculated to improve the general health should be pre-eminent in the 
treatment ; therefore, the patient should be removed from all enervating 
influences, of school duties, or any other occupation, of heat, cold or 
dampness, and sent to the country, where the atmosphere is pure and 
bracing. Her nourishment, with due regard to her capacity, should be 
generous, of digestible meats not overdone. 

She should take regular and systematic exercise in the open air, but 
proportionate to her strength, never beyond it ; the exercise should be 



, 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 



247 



gradually increased, until she can walk three or four miles a day with- 
out prostration. She should not lift, nor carry weights, nor practice 
cooking by hot stoves. She should keep her skin in moderate perspira- 
tion by warm clothing, careful, however, not to expose herself to draughts 
of cold air. She should shun the ball-room, late suppers, and all scenes 
of excitement. 

She should not remain in wet shoes or garments ; and when she has 
unavoidedly exposed herself to getting wet, she should return home, 
walking rather than driving, immediately remove the wet articles, dry 
the skin by brisk friction, dress herself in dry garments, and move about 
until reaction is complete. Locally, she should keep the parts free from 
accumulations by daily ablutions and cleansing with castile soap and 
water. 





DISEASES OF WOMEN 



(CONCLUDED.) 




CHAPTER 



T has been shown that the womb, at puberty, 
weighs only eight or ten drachms, and in 
women who have borne several children, only 
two ounces and a half, and that it can be 
suspended upon a single hair. It is very 
evident then, that if the womb is so small an 
organ, or weighs so little, it will not a fall 
down," out of its position, by its own weight, 
as has so long been supposed, by ignorant, 
credulous and superstitious persons, particu- 
larly since we have seen how perfectly it is 
supported and held up in its place by numerous strong 
bands or ligaments. 

The causes of prolapsus or displacement of the womb 
may be divided into those which predispose, or render 
persons more liable to be afflicted with this disease, and those which 
excite, or directly produce it. Among the most prominent predisposing 
causes, we may mention weakness and relaxation of the vaginal canal, 
and the broad and round ligaments, which support and keep the womb 
in its place. 

The smallest end, or neck, of the womb comes down into the vaginal 
canal, much in the same way a cork comes down into the mouth and neck 
of a bottle. If we could dilate the cavity of the mouth and neck of a 
bottle sufficiently, then of course the cork would fall down through the 
mouth and neck into the cavity of the bottle below. Besides the round 
and broad ligaments, the womb is also supported by the vaginal canal, 
much in the same way that the mouth and neck of a bottle support the 
cork, which closes it. When the round and broad ligaments and the 
vaginal canal become weakened and relaxed, any woman is predisposed! 
248 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 249 

or rendered far more liable to suffer with prolapsus, or displacement of the 
womb. 

All women with pale skin, cold extremities, and soft, flabby, relaxed 
and feeble muscles, are strongly predisposed to this disease. Still, it is 
possible for all such women, by great care and prudence, to avoid its 
production all through life. It will be seen that the organs of digestion 
situated in the cavity of the abdomen, rest upon and are in part supported 
by the bladder and womb, which form a sort of elastic floor beneath them. 
Now it will be easily understood that if the stomach, liver and intestinal 
canal are forced downwards against the bladder and womb, situated 
beneath them, by any misapplication of the dress, more especially in that 
class of comparatively weak and feeble women who are unable to endure 
it, then the weight and pressure of the intestinal canal from above will 
force the womb out of its place. When the vaginal wall is much weak- 
ened and relaxed, as it often is, in many women who have borne numer- 
ous children, very rapidly, then it will force the womb directly downwards, 
producing what is called Procidentia. 

HOW TO TREAT DISPLACEMENTS. 

The extent of this displacement will depend upon the degree of 
relaxation of the ligaments 'of the womb and vaginal canal, and the 
amount of weight and pressure upon the womb. Sometimes the womb is 
only slightly displaced, falling only a short distance down into the relaxed 
vaginal canal, with its mouth and neck resting against the lower bowel, 
or rectum. In other instances it falls down through the vaginal canal, 
and often appears externally. 

When the womb is only moderately displaced, with its mouth and 
neck pressing against the rectum and lower portion of the spine, the pres- 
sure and friction of the mouth and neck of this delicate and sensitive 
organ will soon cause irritation of the mouth and neck of the womb, 
followed by neuralgic pains through the lower portion of the spine, hips 
and pelvis, with discharges of mucus, etc. 

Symptoms of Procidentia. When the womb falls down into the vagi- 
nal canal, it will cause a pulling or dragging down sensation inside of 
the hips, which is much increased on standing and walking. These disa- 
greeable feelings are produced by the tension of the round and broad 
ligaments attached to each side of the womb. The extent of these di 
greeable sensations will be in proportion to the extent of the prolapsus. 



250 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 






When the womb is only slightly displaced, there will be but little 
tension, or pulling down upon these ligaments, but in bad cases, when the 
womb falls entirely down through the vaginal canal, the pain and bearing 
down sensations are so urgent as to compel many women, who suffer with 
this disease, to lay down to remove the weight and pressure of the digest- 
ive organs from the bladder and womb. Many women, having discovered 
that the recumbent position affords them almost entire relief, from their 
most painful and disagreeable feelings, frequently resort to the lounge for 

relief, and finally become " bed-ridden," as they 
find it the only comfortable position. 

Treatment of Procidentia. For the cure of 
this variety of prolapsus, we must first remove 
all weight and pressure caused by the organs of 
digestion upon the upper extremities of the 
womb and bladder. Second, we must contract 
and strengthen the relaxed and weakened liga- 
ments of the womb and vagina. It is totally 
useless to undertake to cure this disease without 
removing the causes which produce it. There 
is no compromise between health and fashion ! 

Any earnest and honest woman who wants 
to get well — one who has suffered long enough 
a section of the cavity of the Ab- and is heartily sick of fashionable quackery, 

domen and Pelvis of a well-formed --. - A ., ri11 

woman, exhibiting aii of the organs and who is prepared to obey the laws oi health 

^^b£^£^Jb^a^I as revealed t0 h er in tne stud Y °f ner own nature 
s fi ion ^ f i? e w ? mb J 8 ;- a Se VT —will have but little difficulty in curing herself, 

of the Bladder ; 4, a Section of the m *> _ *> J 

vagina. if she will only go to work in the right way. In 

the first place, she must shorten the waist of her dress, so that the belt 
which fastens the skirt to the waist of all her dresses shall be applied 
around her body, not more than three inches below her breasts. 

In the second place, she must make for herself an undervest, made 
full and cut low in the neck, and buttoning up in front, like a vest as worn 
by men, with a number of pearl buttons fastened to the binding for the 
attachment of the skirts. The binding of each skirt must have corre- 
sponding button-holes to fit. 

When the dress is adjusted to the female form in this way, all the 
weight of the underclothing will be removed from the liver, stomach and 
the intestinal canal, and suspended upon the shoulders, which were 




DISEASES OF WOMEN. 



designed by the Creator for that purpose. When the clothing is applied 
in this way, it may be worn perfectly loose, so that there is the utmost 
freedom of the movement of the trunk and extremities of the body ; and 
it is not only loose and perfectly easy when first put on, but it remains 
loose all day, and does not drag down by its own weight, so that long 
before night the binding of the skirts becomes as tight as the strings of a 
harp ! When we remonstrate with women who wear lon^-waisted dresses, 
and fasten their skirts around their waists, and 
allow them to drag down the liver, stomach and 
bowels, against the womb, with their whole weight, 
and producing displacement of the womb, dragging 
down sensations, sideache, backache, etc., we are 
often told that they " never dress tightly," etc. 
Now this may all be perfectly true, that the cloth- 
ing, when first applied was loose, but, when it is 
pinned on, or fastened around the waist with tape 
strings, it will not stay loose, it will soon drag down, 
and become tight as its own weight can make it, 
causing constipation, dyspepsia, flatulency, nervous 
debility, prolapsus, congestion, inflammation, 
ulceration of the womb, etc. 

If we tie a thread moderately tight around one 
of our fingers, it will arrest the return of the blood 
to the heart, and the finger will soon swell, and 




Procidentia. A Section of the 

Abdomen and Pelvis of a 

Woman, showing the Bowels, 

Womb and Bladder displaced. 

, 1, a Section of the Rectum ; 2, a 

become congested, and then innained ; and so of section of the womb: Ha see- 
the womb, when the dress fits only moderately oZtvZmt***''*'**™* " 
tight around the waist, compressing the great blood-vessels in the cavity 
of the abdomen, which are exceedingly elastic, and so prevent the return 
of the blood from the womb, causing uterine congestion and its terrible 
consequences, In fact, there is no language that is adequate to describe 
the amount of wretchedness and misery produced among women from 
this cause. 

As soon as the dress has been properly adjusted, and all weight and 
pressure has been removed from the womb, it may easilv be raised up to 
its proper place, and the relaxed and weakened ligaments, and vagina, may 
be contracted and strengthened by suitable treatment. To induce muscu- 
lar contractility, no remedies have yet been found superior to preparations 
of iron-alum, and nux vomica. 



252 



DISEASES OE WOMEN. 



Anteversion of the Womb. — In many instances, more especially 
among yonng women, when the vaginal canal is not relaxed, and its 
cavity distended by giving birth to nnmerons children, or by weakening 
and exhausting discharges from the vaginal canal, leucorrhcea, etc., the 
womb, instead of descending into or through the vagina, may be turned 
over in front against the bladder, producing anteversion, as seen in the 
accompanying illustration. 

When the womb is displaced in this way, the symptoms, or disagree- 
able sensations which it will produce, are totally 
different from those caused by procidentia, as 
detailed in another place. In consequence of the 
pressure of the womb against the bladder in front 
of this organ, it is greatly reduced in size, and its 
neck is often prolapsed, forming a soft elastic 
tumor in the mouth of the vagina, that may often 
be mistaken for the womb, or for a polypus, or 
other tumors, resting in the vaginal canal. The 
bladder, being much reduced in size, can retain 
only a small quantity of urine at a time, creating 
a desire to frequently urinate, with constant uneasy 
feelings, or bearing down sensations in the lower 
portion of the abdomen, and through the region of 

Anteversion. A Section of the the bladder. 
Abdomen and Pelvis, exhibiting /^y, r t -11 1 ,i i ■% 

i,asectionoftheRectnm;2,the These feelings will be greatly increased by 

^i^XZX^ liftin S> standing, and walking about, etc. Ante- 
mto the vagina. version is by far the most frequent of all forms of 

displacement of the womb. When any woman stands erect, and the 
organs of the pelvis are all in their proper places, the womb is inclined a 
little forward against the bladder, and any force acting upon it from above 
will be more likely to turn it still further forward against the bladder, 
than in any other direction. 

Treatment of anteversion of the womb. This form of displacement 
is always produced by pressure from above, acting upon the womb 
beneath, and forcing it over in front, against the bladder. Now it is very 
evident that it will be utterly impossible for any pessarie, or other instru- 
ment introduced into the vagina, to raise the womb up off the bladder, 
and retain it in its proper position. This can only be accomplished by 
first removing all pressure from above, by shortening the waist of the 




DISEASES OF WOMEN. 



dress, so that the belt does not come down more than three inches below 
the breasts, removing all whalebone, abandoning the corset, and adjusting 
the skirts to a well fitting undervest. 

When all weight and pressure from above have been removed from 
the womb, as directed, then the weakened and relaxed ligaments of this 
organ may be induced to contract, by the judicious use of cold hip baths 
and astringent injections, friction over the lower portion of the abdomen, 
inside of the hips, with a coarse towel, night and morning, in a reclining 
position, and the use of astringent tonics internally, 
such as iron, quinine, nux vomica, etc. 

Retroversion of the Womb. — When great 
pressure and weight are applied to the fundus of 
the womb from above, it will sometimes turn over 
backwards against the rectum, or lower bowel, 
instead of forwards against the bladder, producing 
what is called retroversion of the womb, as seen in 
the following illustration. When the womb turns 
over backwards in this way, it will cause another 
train of symptoms or disagreeable sensations totally 
different from those already described as peculiar 
to other forms of displacement. 

In consequence of the weight and pressure of 
the womb against the rectum, it causes a bearing 
down sensation, as if there was something in the 
bowels which must be discharged, to afford relief. 
This bearing down feeling with a desire to have a 
movement of the bowels is often accompanied with heat and slight burn- 
ing sensations through the lower portions of the abdomen and hips, caused 
by irritation of the womb, vagina and rectum. 

Retroversion is by far the most uncommon of all the varieties of 
displacement of the womb, and it can only be produced by the wicked 
and reckless abuse of the female organization by the misapplication of 
dress. A very large amount of force must be applied from above to the 
fundus of the womb to produce anteversion or retroversion. These diseases 
are not produced, as many ignorant persons unhappily suppose, by " lift- 
ing" some trifling object, " carrying a bucket of water," or walking M up- 
stairs," as the author has often been assured b}^ its unhappy victims, but 
by causes already fully explained and thoroughly illustrated, so that the 




Retroversion. A Section of 
Abdomen and Pelvis, exhibit- 
ing 1, the Rectum: 2, the Womb 
turned over back against the 
Rectum; 3, the Bladder; 4, Va- 
gina. 



254 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

most incredulous can fully understand them, and know what they must 
do to prevent and cure these diseases ! 

Treatment of retroversion of the womb. For the cure of retrover- 
sion of the womb, it will be necessary to remove the causes which 
produced it. The author has no sympathy with that class of medical 
charlatans, who either do not understand the nature and causes of these 
displacements of the womb, or who are too timid and time serving to point 
them out clearly, so that they can be clearly understood by the numerous 
victims of these diseases, who are compelled to suffer, often ignorantly, 
the consequences of their own indiscretions. 

FIRST THING TO BE DONE. 

The first thing to be accomplished in the treatment of all of these 
diseases, is to totally revolutionize the fashionable habits of dress, and 
having readjusted the clothing upon sound hygienic and physiological 
principles, then various local means may be resorted to for the purpose of 
raising up the womb to its proper position in the cavity of the pelvis, such 
as cold hip baths, astringent injections, and friction of the abdomen while 
in the recumbent position, with the hips well elevated, and with the face 
downwards. This position is often indispensable to release the fundus of 
the womb from beneath the promontory of the sacrum, or lower portion 
of the spine, which projects so far forward into the cavity of the pelvis as 
to often interfere with the return of the womb to its proper position. 

Treatment. — The hymen must be divided or an aperture made. This 
operation is not attended with pain. The vagina should then be syringed 
with tepid water and the recumbent position observed until the right 
position of the organ be regained. 

Vaginetjs, or Inflammation of the Vagina. — Inflammation of 
this organ may be confined to the lining membrane, or it may extend to 
the subcutaneous tissue. 

Symptoms. — Sensation of weight and fullness in the vaginal canal ; 
pain and redness of the part. The speculum will reveal redness and 
swelling of the lining membrane, which is tender to the touch. At first 
there is no discharge. After a few days there is a thin serous secretion, 
which finally becomes yellowish, or greenish, or purulent. It is difficult 
to detect this discharge from that of gonorrhoea. It is very important, 
however, to do so, in order to protect the character for chastity of the 
individual afflicted. The discharge of gonorrhoea can only be detected 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 255 

from that of vaginitis by the aid of the microscope. No physician 
should dare pronounce the discharge gonorrhceal without such micro- 
scopic examination. 

It may result from cold, excessive sexual indulgence, child-bearing, 
stimulating food and drink, gonorrhoeal virus, etc. 

Treatment. — Warm hip-bath and injection of cold water into the 
vagina. If the discharge is excessive, procure a solution of five grains 
of sulphate of zinc to an ounce of water ; two ounces to be injected three 
times a day. The bowels are to be kept regular. 

Inflammation of Ovaries and Tubes. — Diseases of the Fallo- 
pian tubes are more common than inflammation of the ovaries. Where 
the tubes are much inflamed, thickening may occur, while there may also 
be a discharge similar to what is observed in inflammation of the uterus. 

PAIN AND SORENESS. 

Symptoms. — Dull aching pain in one or both illiac regions, accom- 
panied by sensations of weight and heat ; pain and soreness on pressure 
in the region of the ovaries, with some fever, which is almost always 
intermittent. 

Causes. — Cold, blows in the region, over-sexual indulgence, suppres- 
sion of menses, etc. 

Treatment. — Counter-irritation in the region of the ovary. 

Inflammation of the Mucous Membrane of the Vagina, or 
Canal Leading to the Womb. — The " mucous membrane " that lines 
the vaginal canal may, from some cause or other, become the subject of 
inflammation, whence its name, vaginitis. It is, in many instances, a 
very distressing affection. It assumes various forms — it may be general 
or it may be limited. The acute form of the disease is not a very 
common affection. The chronic form, on the contrary, is of greater 
frequency. In this form it is mostly considered as of a secondary 
character, a symptom of some other affection. 

The only form of this affection which I shall consider is the simple 
vaginitis in its acute and chronic character. It is typical of the various 
forms of inflammation with which the mucous membrane of the vaginal 
canal may be attacked. This inflammation of the mucous membrane of 
the vaginal canal, whether acute or chronic, is an affection that is met with 
at all periods of woman's life, and at all ages. 

As just observed, the disease under consideration consists in an 



256 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

inflammatory condition of the membranous lining of the canal leading 
to the womb, from some cause or other presently to be mentioned. The 
disease, as just stated, is met with in both acute and chronic forms. Each 
type may appear originally to be the result one of the other. The 
acute form may be excited by some special cause and rapidly pass into 
the chronic. The affection may also have originated in an incipient and 
low grade of inflammation, or it may at any time take on an acute and 
occasionally a very virulent character. The tendency of the inflamma- 
tion is to extend and invade the surrounding organs, tissues, etc., such 
as the womb, its neck, or the bladder, and to constitute so many compli- 
cations superadded to the original character of the affection. 

CAUSES OP INFLAMMATION. 

Among other causes recognized as capable of exciting inflammatory 
action in the mucous membrane of the vaginal canal, are the following : 

i. Various vaginal secretions. 2. Exposure to cold, dampness, etc. 
3. Various abnormal states of the womb, its neck, and of its surround- 
ing organs, tissues, etc., such as inflammation, ulceration, etc. 4. Pecu- 
liar habit of the constitution, such as the scrofulous, the lymphatic, etc. 
5. Various injuries of a mechanical organ, such as may be produced by 
pessaries, excessive intercourse, or contusions, lacerations, etc. 6. Chemi- 
cal agencies, such as applications to the womb, or its neck, made in a 
careless manner. 7. Specific poison. It is unnecessary to enter into a 
full consideration of these various causes ; they sufficiently explain 
themselves. 

Inflammation of the mucous membrane that lines the vagina or 
canal leading to the womb, if acute, may be recognized by the following 
symptoms : 

A sense or sensation of heat; it may be burning — and fullness, 
swelling, tension, redness of some of the organs and more or less itch- 
ing, great tenderness, amounting sometimes to actual pain, rendering the 
necessary instrumental manipulation painful and frequently unsatis- 
factory. An arrest of secretion, which produces dryness, then a profuse 
purulent vaginal discharge of a yellowish or greenish color takes place, 
of an acrid and offensive character, lasting more or less long. 

More or less frequent desire for micturition exists. Erotions or 
excoriations occur within and around the external organs. All these 
symptoms are liable to be periodically aggravated by the menstrual 



DISEASES OF WOMEN. 257 

congestion ; thence arises a tendency to its perpetuation, if it does not 
at once subside or give way to the proper means of treatment. 

It is thus easily seen, that if the slightest amount of inflammation 
is left previous to menstruation, the congestion which precedes this 
function may fan it into a flame, developing anew the inflammatory 
action. In the chronic form of this affection, the symptoms are much 
less decided, but a long train of sympathetic appearances, not unlike 
those observed in inflammation and ulceration of the neck of the womb, 
to which I would refer my readers, usually accompanies it. 

The chronic form, whether general or partial, may last indefinitely, 
like chronic inflammations of all other mucous membranes, giving rise 
to a constant vaginal secretion, varying in intensity according to the 
patient's state of health, social and hygienic position, and the particular 
period of the month. In the course of time, this secretion passes into a 
mere flux, and its existence in this aspect is a source of great annoyance, 
discomfort, weakness and general debility. 

VARIOUS MORBID CONDITIONS. 

The symptoms enumerated in the preceding article may be the result 
of various morbid conditions, inflammatory or other, of the womb, its 
appendages, of the mucous membrane of the vagina, or the surrounding 
tissues, and hence, there is occasionally great difficulty, almost impossi- 
bility, in recognizing the real character of the affection under observa- 
tion. It is, consequently, necessary to obtain a truthful and accurate 
history of the case, and all the antecedents of the patient, and above all, 
to make a thorough local examination. Nothing short of this will 
enable the practitioner to discriminate between the disease under consider- 
ation and any other disease of a similar character ; or in other words, 
between an inflammation of a specific or non-specific origin. 

The prognosis, or outlook, of this affection is not unfavorable. It 
is the nature of this disease, generally, to run a certain course, more or 
less long. Its chronic form, I observed when considering the symptoms 
of the affection, may continue indefinitely, and become the source of 
great annoyance and discomfort; and the general debility it occasions 
may render women whom it attacks invalids for the remainder of their 
life, or for that period of years in which the affection remains unchecked 
or uncured. 

The character of this affection having been sufficiently explained 
17 



258 DISEASES OF WOMEN. 

in the preceding articles, my readers will see the necessity of trusting its 
management, without loss of time, to the physician, who alone is 
competent to bring it to an early and safe termination. In the mean- 
time, patients attacked with this disease, should at once make such 
preparations as will enable them to enjoy perfect rest, and a horizontal 
posture ; they should avoid locomotion and excitement, and abstain from 
intercourse. Their diet should be light, of moderate quantity and 
unstimulating. 

Fomentations, by means of flannels wrung out of hot water or some 
soothing decoction, may be advantageously applied over the lower part 
of the stomach and around the hips. They should also, several times a 
day, take a hip or sitz bath, or better still, sit over a tub partly filled with 
warm water, in which, for soothing purposes, a sufficient quantity of 
boiling starch, poppies or linseed have been thrown. In this position 
they should make use of copious injections of warm water. 

This outline of treatment applies more to the acute than to the 
chronic form of the disease. ' In the latter form the patient should take 
frequent out-door exercise ; her diet may be more libera^ yet unstimu- 
lating; cold bathing; sea-bathing if possible, and daily injections, as 
recommended above, are appropriate measures to be employed. 

" In the treatment of all cases of vaginitis," remarks Dr. Graily 
Hewitt, u whatever be the cause, very great importance is to be attached 
to the observance of cleanliness ; frequent ablutions should be employed. " 
Finally, perseverance and time are important items in the treatment of 
the disease in its chronic form. "If," observes Dr. Byford, u we can 
remove this chronic inflammation in three or even six months, we ought 
to be satisfied. And we ought not to be surprised to have it return one 
or more times after it is apparently cured. It is well, also, to teach our 
patient patience in this respect." 







HEALTHY AND ROBUST 

CHILDREN. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

HILOSOPHERS and physiologists have discussed at 
length the relation of the mind to the body. We shall 
not follow them in their subtle reasonings. We have evi- 
dence enough for our purpose, to admit, that the body and 
the mind grow apace, and decay almost in the same ratio ; 
that affections of the body re-act upon the mind, and affec- 
tions of the mind re-act upon the body. There are excep- 
tions to this rule ; but as we speak of general training, the 
exceptions must be overlooked, and the general law of 
health carefully studied. 

The brain, the seat of our intellectual faculties, is as material as a 
leg or an arm, and is subject to the same laws for its preservation and 
destruction. When the matter composing the brain becomes affected by 
morbific causes, the equilibrium of the mind becomes disturbed, and 
reason put at variance with the mental conceptions of right or wrong of 
people in a state of healthy organization. Hence, the old proverb, Mens 
sana in corpore sano, "A sound mind in a sound body." 

The brain, having a physical organization, must depend on physical 
laws. The mind, however, which is the spiritual manifestation of the 
functions of the brain, depends upon physical laws only so far as it 
relates to matter, the brain. But the mind has properties of her own, 
which must depend upon moral forces for nutrition. Intuition and 
reason are the fundamental properties of our intellect. 

The first is innate and has an original power of its own ; the second 
becomes efficient by being susceptible of a fine and high development 
by means of imitation and comparison. These properties of the mind 
vary in different individuals. The innate property, when possessed in a 
very high degree, will produce a genius, even in the midst of the most 
passive ignorance. 

Reason is moulded by the moral food it receives from its surround- 
ings, and is therefore more susceptible of cultivation. For the former, 



260 HEALTHY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 

we can only thank our great and wise Creator ; for the latter, the old are 
responsible to the young, in the manner of leading them to a system of 
distinguishing right from wrong. It is to this point that I call the 
attention of parents. This moral training devolves upon them : they 
are responsible for it. 

Talis pater, talis filius, "As is the father, so is the son," is another 
old maxim, based on observations which have been made from time 
immemorial. This may be taken as a truism, proving the inheritance 
of moral tendencies as of physical perfections or imperfections, and is 
an argument adopted by such parents as like to shift their responsibility. 
But while inherited physical lines cannot be changed by a separation of 
father and son, moral traits can ; and this fact is often exhibited in those, 
who, having left their parental roof before their mind was fully devel- 
oped, have returned so changed as to seem strangers in the midst of their 

own family. 

MENTAL DEVELOPMENT. 

It is indisputable, therefore, that the mind, although a spiritual 
essence, is subject to growth, development, and training; in other words, 
to education. 

We do not intend, by this, to deny that there are manifestations of 
the mind whose origin can be traced to the parent. We know too well, 
that the transmission of organic, moral and mental traits is possible; 
we too often recognize congenital tendencies to disease of body, and 
deterioration of mind. But this is the inevitable, concerning which we 
have nothing to say now. We are treating of those qualities that take 
their course from education. 

A husbandman may plant a tree perfect in symmetry and in health. 
When once that tree is planted, it becomes subject to the vicissitudes of 
climates, to the shock of storms and tempests. If it is allowed to grow 
without protection, its beautiful symmetry will soon be lost, its straight 
stock become crooked, its smooth face knotty and rugged. So it is with 
children. A child born of healthy parents will be healthy in its physi- 
cal and mental tendencies. 

But, as soon as born, it becomes exposed to impressions, which will 
affect its proper growth and development. It matters not how young the 
child is. As its body is liable to affections engendered by contact, infec- 
tions, errors of diet, or atmospheric changes ; so its mind is affected by 
conceptions induced by external impressions. Thus the child grows in 



HEALTHY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 201 

this atmosphere of moral impressions. Its purity and integrity can only 
be maintained by surrounding it with purity and integrity. A careful 
parent, watchful of the manifestations of his child's mind, can timely 
repair many a shock that it has received from dangerous impressions, 
and correct many wrong natural tendencies. 

Reason, which is distinguished from other faculties of the mind by 
its relating always to knowledge, is the power that conceives ideas of 
right and wrong, true and false, by comparison. Reason, therefore, is 
the generative power of thought, the judge of fitness of ideas, and, 
consequently, the motive power and regulator of our action. 

When the process of reasoning is complete, it manifests itself in 
action. Action has immediate effect upon ourselves and our neighbor. 
The action will then affect our moral and physical welfare, and our 
neighbor in his rights and privileges. 

FOUR STAGES OF LIFE. 

Having thus, in a few words, examined the relation of the mind to 
the body, and suggested the progressive extension of its effects upon the 
rights of our fellow-men, let us consider the relation of its growth with 
that of other organs of the body, and its gradual development. 

The term of life, although uninterrupted in its moral and physical 
growth and decay, has been divided into four stages : Infancy, Adole- 
scence, Virility, Dementia. 

This division is not a mere speculation of inetaplrysicians : it 
exists in Nature, although the lines of demarcation are not so bold or 
sudden as to be immediately appreciable to the eye or to the mind. 

Infancy, or childhood, is a period almost totally vegetative : it is a 
period of the development of the organs before the mind is sufficiently 
developed to completely exercise its influence over them, — before they are 
fit for action. This period will embrace the twelve or fourteen first 
years of our life. 

Adolescence is the progression of the former period. The term comes 
from the Latin adolescere, " to grow," to " become strong." It denotes 
that period of human life between the first signs of puberty, and the 
time when the body ceases to grow, and has acquired all its physical 
perfection. This period commences at eleven or twelve years oi a 
with women, and at fourteen or fifteen with men ; ending with the former 
at twenty-one, with the latter at twenty-five, years of age, or thereabout 



m HEALTH Y AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 

The changes that the organism undergoes at this epoch of life are 
very remarkable in both sexes. In the man, the organs of generation, 
until then passive and stationary, begin to develop, and prepare them- 
selves to fulfil those functions, so important to the human species, of 
reproduction. The capacity of the chest becomes greater ; the voice 
becomes stronger and more sonorous ; the beard commences to grow ; the 
muscles acquire shape and strength ; the bones become firmer ; and the 
figure gains a decided height. All the organs become perfect. 

From this exuberance of life, which is not always exempt from 
casualties, — from this increase of energy in all the organs, — come those 
impetuous movements, those fiery passions, those generous impulses, 
which characterize the young man. Soon he dreams but of love, of 
devotion, of combats, of active exertion and successful efficiency ; he 
desires glory ; and, in his exuberance of life, he becomes the ardent 
lover, the intrepid warrior, the eager student, the generous friend. 

PERFECTION OF WOMAN'S ORGANS. 

In the woman, these physical and moral changes are not less remark- 
able. The organ of her especial function, the womb, which so far has 
given no special sign of existence, comes out of its state of inertia ; the 
menses appear, to return periodically every month ; the breasts, whose 
functional existence is so intimately connected with the womb, commence 
to develop ; every organ perfects itself in preparation for the process of 
conception. 

The body of the woman, however, retains a part of that infantile 
delicacy of texture, of that suppleness, of that grace of movement, 
which makes such a contrast with the striking vigor, the activity, the 
impetuosity, that distinguish the same stage in man. 

It is at this epoch, so fitly called the " flower of youth," that the 
two sexes feel that irresistible attraction to one another, that desire to 
approach each other, which, without doubt, is the source of the sweetest 
enjoyment, but which also often leads into acts that Nature reproves, in 
those excesses so fatal to the health of our youth. 

Virility ('' manhood ") is the period that commences from adole- 
scence, and ends with old age. In the age of manhood, the body has 
acquired all its proportions and all its strength. The life becomes more 
equal and uniform ; the ideas, which have followed in the ratio of physi- 
cal development, now become more profound and fixed ; the movements 






HEALTHY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. : 

of the body are consonant with the dignity of the mind. The time of 
brilliant illusions has passed: imagination gives place to judgment, 
frivolity to circumspection, heat of passion to cold reasoning, vivacity to 
reflection, impulsive generosity to prudence and calculation and finally 
to ambition. 

Dementia is the period when the body and mind decay. It is less 
distinct, as it varies in different people, according to the preservation of 
their health ; and oftentimes we see an active mind in a decayed body. 
Yet it is a period that must come sooner or later to both mind and body. 

Of these stages we will give our attention to the first two, as the 
latter two are beyond training or parental prerogative. 

The word " hygiene " is used here to express the system that should 
be followed in directing the children's mind, and to give them a healthy 
and robust constitution, without which, when they arrive at the age of 
manhood, they could not fulfil the duties which Nature has assigned to 
them among their fellow-men, in the society of whom they must revolve. 

DANGEROUS MISTAKE IN EDUCATION. 

The most dangerous conception in the training of children is one 
that unfortunately prevails even among the educated classes ; and that is, 
that the moral education can be absolutely isolated from the physical. 
These two conditions, the moral and the physical, are dependent upon, 
and in close relation to each other. Man cannot possess a faculty that 
does not find its outward expression through an organ. How can it be 
expected, then, to attain the perfection of the former, without assisting 
in the development of the organ without which it could not practically 
exist ? The education of a child consists, therefore, in faithfully follow- 
ing the laws of Nature. 

Education should be slow and progressive : it ought to be applied as 
each organ becomes developed. The idea of forcing children beyond 
their mental or physical capacity demonstrates the grossest ignorance 
of the laws of Nature ; and the result of such process will be the reverse 
of what is intended to attain, — dwarfish body, a puny mind. 

A system of education which would develop a healthy state oi mind 
and body should allow the organs time to form themselves before exer- 
cising them, and would from the first direct or regulate their action. It 
is necessary, therefore, to follow the order in which they become success- 
ively developed; which development may vary in different subjects. 



264 HEALTHY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 

Consequently, the first object of the mother should be to nourish 
her child well ; then to regulate its impressions from external bodies or 
things, and to favor the development of the faculty of each organ ; lastly, 
she should give her special care to the mind, the faculties of which 
manifest themselves according to the development of the organs. 

A child thus raised may not be an angelic seraph, which foolish 
women dream of. It will be a lively, turbulent, and probably somewhat 
opinionated child ; but the excellence of its constitution, the equilibrium 
of the faculties so perfected, will denote a degree of vigor and health 
bespeaking a happy future for it. The development of its mind will be 
marked by the facility with which it will learn ; its moral strength by its 
assurance and self-dependence, and by a certain dignified freedom of 
thought and action. 

PREVALENT VICES TO BE AVOIDED. 

It is not enough, therefore, that a mother should nurse her infant: 
she should attend to its development herself, instead of trusting it to 
mercenaries, whose minds are so narrow that they seem often to outrage 
common- sense and reason. The parents should watch the child with 
solicitude, particularly at that period when many dangerous vices are 
practised ; and, when the child is older, they should surround it with that 
wholesome example of probity and virtue which is the best lesson that 
can be given. 

The parents should never forget that the child sees, hears, and 
learns, and that before it, at least, there should never be made exhibi- 
tions of ill-temper, anger or violence. They should refrain from vulgar- 
ity, and from habits that could not be tolerated in good society. The fact 
that the father is master of his own house is no reason why he should 
contaminate his children with the worst passions of his nature or of his 
education. If he has not respect for himself, he should, at least, desire 
that his children might be respected by their fellow-men. It is during 
this tender age that impressions are received which a life-time are not 
sufiicient to destroy. 

From the conduct of the children, one can generally make an esti- 
mate of the moral qualities of the parents. If a child swears, I know 
either that its father is given to profanity, or he does not love it suffi- 
ciently to shield it from associations where profanity, immorality, and ill 
manners abound. 



HEAI/THY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 265 

People talk of children's perversity. As for myself, I do not believe 
in natural depravity. God is too merciful and too wise to create man 
depraved, that man may make himself upright and perfect. This would 
make man greater than God. The only instincts I can trace in human 
nature are common to all animals, those of self-preservation and self- 
gratification. The child of the desert knows no other law. He would 
pick from the earth, bring down from the air, anything that this instinct 
would suggest as useful to himself. 

When men came together in multitudes and formed society, it 
became necessary to make such mutual agreements as would define their 
duties toward one another, for the preservation of order, in combined 
action. Society, as it grew in magnitude, improved these agreements, 
and progressively enacted still more stringent and binding measures, 
that would secure the rights of one and the rights of all, until they 
reached that high degree of civilization that now governs the best part of 
the world. The negative, " Do not unto others what you would not have 
done unto yourself," has become the highest law of civilization, while its 
positive complement has become the ideal commandment of Christianity. 

TEMPTATION AND THEFT. 

The taking of other people's property is called a theft ; yet if an 
uncivilized being, one who grew in the solitude of the forest or the prai- 
rie, should suddenly be transported into our streets, and, at a moment 
when his appetite demanded food, should find himself before a baker's 
shop, with tempting loaves in his show-window, would you condemn him 
for theft if he rudely broke the glass, appropriated one of the loaves, and 
sat himself down to devour it with gusto ? 

Yet our children have to live in the society of their fellow-men ; and, 
in order to become worthy members of it, they should be made acquainted 
with the laws that have modified that crude intuition of self-preservation 
and self-gratification. But how? By education. The moral training of 
the parents is the loving and artistic hand that is to teach the discrimina- 
tion of fine shades of right and wrong, the appreciation of that chiaro- 
scuro which will tone down the bold lines of their conceptions, that will 
make each feature, although distinct in itself, blend in perfect harmony 
with the others, so as to make the whole a thing to admire, a thing to 
love. 

Let no parent delude himself, or attempt to screen his deficiency, by 



266 HEALTHY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 

putting forth the false argument of the chiid's perversity, or natural 
depravity. 

" Here, in the family, at home, if anywhere, we are to look for that 
moral training which is to fit our youth for the active pursuits of life, and 
prepare them to meet its seductions and its duties. Here, if anywhere, 
they are to acquire the power of governing passion and resisting the 
impulses of the lower appetites ; of discerning the nicer shades of right 
and wrong ; of sacrificing self to the call of benevolence or duty, and, 
amid trial and change, steadily keeping in view the great ends and purpo- 
ses of life." — Ray^s Mental Hygiene. 

A study of the child's nature and temperament is necessary to under- 
stand its wants. A judicious, loving, and persuasive system will smooth 
many of the rude lines of his nature. Do not batter him down with 
imperiousness and coercion, as if he ought to know as much as yourself, 
but try to elevate him by instructing and developing his moral sense. 
Raise him to a higher estimation of himself by believing in his honesty 
of purpose, by lifting him to a higher sense of dignity. 

INSTINCT OF THE ANIMAL NATURE. 

An innocent child cannot steal. If he takes what is not his own, it 
is because his wants have not been understood, and because he has been 
denied that which would gratify him, or else because he has learned, that, to 
take secretly, will not incur the displeasure or punishment of his parents. 

Self-gratification, we have said, is an instinct of animal nature ; there- 
fore the child, who is yet an animal, is a gourmand. While his mouth 
has tasted what is good, his reason is not sufficiently developed or educated 
to understand what is not good for him. He has not yet learned that to 
eat at regular hours is conducive to his well-being : he has tasted the 
apple, and the apple was sweet ; all your temper and anger will not prove 
to the child that the apple was not good for him. 

You say the child is a natural thief? How is it that the child would 
not steal a diamond, but would steal an apple ? The education which will 
eventually teach him that the value of the diamond is above that of the 
apple will also teach him that his appetite can be satisfied by making a 
demand upon his parents at the proper time, and that to eat every hour of 
the day, however good to his sense of taste, is not conducive to his health. 
Be watchful, and, if it is impossible to keep the child from associations that 
will teach him to deceive, act so with him that deception is unnecessary. 



HEALTHY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 267 

Above all, do not accuse him of deceiving, lying, or stealing ; for 
those opprobrious names will suggest to him acts that are possible and 
within his scope. A great deal of judgment is requisite here. If a child 
has surreptitiously taken an apple, let him understand that he can take 
one with your knowledge ; if he lies, prove to him that the truth would 
have done him less harm than the lie ; that there was no necessity of 
secrecy or deception, as his parents would have been glad to gratify him. 

In fact, bring him near to you ; let him know that he can share with 
you ; that you will share with him. Bring yourself down to his level ; 
and he will find in you his friend, the sympathizer in his pleasures, the 
generous supplier of his wants. Let him feel that he can come to you 
with his little trifles, that he can find in you the soother of his sorrows ; 
thus, with that gentleness that a loving heart is capable of, you will be 
able to lead him from the stray path into the straight road of morality 
and integrity. 

JOINING CHILDREN IN THEIR SPORTS. 

" Those who will join with children, and help them in their sports, 
will learn by this mode to understand the feelings and interests of child- 
hood ; while, at the same time, they secure a degree of confidence and 
affection which cannot be gained so easily in any other way. And it is to 
be regretted that parents so often relinquish this most powerful mode of 
influence to domestics and playmates, who often use it in a most perni- 
cious manner. In joining in such sports, older persons should never 
yield entirely the attitude of superiors, nor allow disrespectful manners 
or address. And respectful deportment is never more cheerfully accorded 
than in seasons when young hearts are pleased and made grateful by 
having their tastes and enjoyments so efficiently promoted.' ' — Miss 
Beecher, in "The American Womarfs Home." 

A child lies: why does he lie? Because he is afraid to tell the 
truth. Why is he afraid to tell the truth ? Because he has been 
rebuked or punished for doing what would gratify him. 

A child finds a gratification in going in company with other children : 
the parents fear those associations, and forbid the child to go. This 
command does not quench his desire for the company ot his equals : he 
will fear to go after your command, but he will wish to go all the same. 
His intent of self-gratification is still stronger than his sense of duty : 
therefore he will go surreptitiously, thus practising an act of deeep: 



268 HEAI/THY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 

which will afterwards induce him to lie for fear of rebuke. What is the 
parent's duty, then ? To go with the child, of course, so as to have the 
opportunity of examining the character of the company his child goes 
in, and to gratify him by providing pleasurable companionship of the 
right kind. 

Thus, while it would be impossible to convince the child that the 
company of children is not gratifying to him, he can be taught that the 
company of certain children is not good for him, while that of others is 
not only good for him, but would meet with the full approbation of the 
parents. Thus the child is taught to discriminate, which mental process 
will lead him to the selection of proper associates. 

MOTHER AND SON. 

It is often said, " Father and daughter, mother and son." Where- 
fore this saying ? It is because it has generally been observed that the 
daughter will go to the father, the son to the mother, for indulgence. 
Why this preference ? Is it because there is more affinity between oppo- 
site sexes? Not necessarily. But, whatever the inward cause, the 
immediate reason is, that the father has more sympathy for the daughter, 
the mother for the son. Whatever may be the reason, a cause exists ; 
and it goes to prove that the parents get the confidence of the child they 
have sympathy with. Take a look at schools, for another example, and 
you will discover the intuitive like and dislike children take to the 
teachers. While a child is perfectly amenable under the tuition of one 
teacher, he is perfectly intractable under the tuition of another. Some 
teachers are even detested by the whole school, while others are much 
beloved. The fault lies with the teacher ; he has no sympathy with some 
or with all children in general. Such men or women are not fit to be 
teachers, however learned they may be. Is there any one, however old, 
who, recurring to early days, does not think with pleasure and affection 
of some teacher, and with aversion of some other? Sympathy on the 
part of the parent will be an irresistible charm to the child. 

Some parents, however, fail on the other side. They are apt, for 
instance, to take a child's tricks as a demonstration of smartness, and be 
pleased and amused with them. This practice is dangerous in the 
extreme ; for it will lead into an indulgence, the result of which, later, 
may be beyond their control. It is most interesting to watch the gradual 
development of a child's mind ; we are charmed by all the actions that 



HEALTHY AND ROBUST CHILDREN. 269 

manifest a reasoning power : but do not nurse vitiated thoughts with 
your approval lest they remain impure forever. 

Induce your child to practise generosity, humanity, and good 
manners. Let him divide his crumb of bread with the beggar or his 
play-fellows, lest he become a miser. Let him not assume an air of 
superiority to his inferiors, lest he become imperious ; teach him to be 
gentle with his equals, lest he become arrogant ; teach him to be tender 
to the mute animals, lest he become cruel ; teach him deference to the 
old, lest he become contemptible ; teach him to love his neighbor as him- 
self, that he may be just ; and, above all, teach him not to fear but to love 
his God, that he may be happy. 

I cannot close this earnest exhortation to parents, better than by 
quoting the following passage from the pen of Miss Catharine E. Beecher : 

" Children can be very early taught that their happiness, both now 
and hereafter, depends on the formation of habits of submission, self- 
denial, and benevolence ; and all the discipline of the nursery can be 
conducted by parents, not only with this general aim in their own minds, 
but also with the same object daily set before the minds of the children. 

" Whenever their wishes are crossed, or their will subdued, they can 
be taught that all this is done, not merely to please the parent, or to 
secure some good to themselves or to others, but as a part of that merci- 
ful training which is designed to form such a character, and such habits, 
that they can hereafter find their chief happiness in giving up their will 
to God, and in living to do good to others, instead of merely living to 
please themselves. 

" In forming the moral habits of children, it is wise to take into 
account the peculiar temptations to which they are to be exposed. The 
people of this nation are eminently a trafficking people ; and the present 
standard of honesty, as to trade and debts, is very low, and even' year 
seems sinking still lower. 

" It is, therefore, pre-eminently important that children should be 
trained to strict honesty, both in word and deed. It is not merely teach- 
ing children to avoid absolute tying, which is needed : all kinds of deceit 
should be guarded against, and all kinds of little dishonest practices be 
strenuously opposed. A child should be brought up with the determined 
principle, never to run in debt, but to be content to live in a humble way, 
in order to secure that true independence which should be the noblest 
distinction of an American citizen." 



CHAPTER XXII. 




EALTH is largely dependent upon the skin, which is more 
active in the child than in the adult : hence it requires 
greater attention. The sympathetic relation of 
the skin, and, indeed, of all the mucous mem- 
branes, with the brain is very intimate. Under 
the proper paragraph, the manner in which an 
infant should be treated immediately after birth, 
has been described. To secure a perfect action 
of the skin, the child should never be exposed to 
extreme heat or cold ; and, if one cannot prevent 
the atmospheric changes, the dress and tempera- 
ture of a room can be easily adapted for his health and comfort. Pure 
air is the most invigorating element to the skin and the lungs : hence a 
child is better in the country than in a city, on high and dry localities 
than in low and damp places. Its room should be moderately cool, rather 
than warm. 

Frictions and bathing are healthful to the skin at every time of life, 
but particularly during childhood. The skin, in order to eliminate its 
proper fluids, must be free from all dirt, which forms a coating sure to 
prevent the due exhalations, compelling it to retain them to its great 
injury. 

A child should become gradually accustomed to cold bathing ; and, 
when old enough, it should be immersed in running water. The shock 
is beneficial, and swimming a most salutary exercise. Young girls are 
deterred from the river, and from swimming, through imaginary fears or 
prejudices : it is a pity, for that is a practice as healthful to them as to 
the boys. When a safe place is provided, the only care that should be 
taken is that they do not become chilled while bathing : after the bath, 
they should be rubbed dry with a coarse towel. 

The length of time that they should be allowed to remain in water 
will depend upon its temperature and their own power of re-action; for, 
while one child can remain in the water half an hour and still feel warm, 
270 



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PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 271 

another can hardly stay ten minntes without feeling chilled. A few 
minutes after the child has come out of the water, he should feel a pleas- 
ant glow of warmth through him ; if not, the bath is injurious to him. 

Baths may be used for the purification of the skin simply or for 
therapeutic (curative) purposes. They may be classified as cold, tepid 
and warm baths. 

The cold bath (water at from seventy to eighty degrees Fahrenheit) 
gives, at most seasons of the year, a sensation of coldness. Its effects 
are " primary " and " secondary." The first are those which take place 
at the time of the immersion ; the second, those that occur later, consti- 
tuting what we understand by the term re-action. 

EFFECT OF COLD WATER BATHING. 

The first effect of cold water applied to the body, generally, is to 
abstract a certain amount of heat from the surface, to constringe the 
capillary vessels, and to force the blood inward. Now, as the living body 
possesses the remarkable property of maintaining its temperature at very 
nearly the same point, whether it is in a colder or hotter medium than 
itself, the vitals at once set to work in restoring the caloric abstracted by 
the contact of the water ; and, as the functions of circulation and calorifi- 
cation go necessarily together, the vital powers, acting through the heart 
and blood-vessels, attempt a return of the blood that has been forced 
inward by the coldness of the water. 

This is what is called " re-action." If the individual is sufficiently 
strong and well stocked with vitality, the blood is quickly returned to the 
surface and to the extremities, constituting what is termed good or rigor- 
ous re-action. But if the surface and extremities continue to remain 
unwarmed by a slow return of blood to them, as happens in the case of 
feeble persons, there is said to be poor or insufficient reaction. 

The tepid bath, sometimes called "lukewarm" ranges from eighty to 
ninety-two degrees Fahrenheit. Its effects do not differ much from those 
of the cold bath, only not so lasting and permanent. It is especially 
useful in the treatment of infants and children, and in all cases where 
the re-active energy is feeble. If in any case we are in doubt whether 
the cold bath is admissible, the tepid form will be a milder measure, and 
at the same time serve as a test in venturing upon the cold. The tepid 
bath may be continued longer at a time, which in some cases will be 
found an advantage. 



272 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 

The warm bath ranges from ninety-two to ninety-eight degrees Fahr- 
enheit. This is nsed only for therapeutic purposes. 

The time of day. After a night's rest, the body has regained vigor 
the circulation is freer, the re-actionary powers are stronger ; consequently, 
morning is the best time for bathing. 

Bejore or after meals. As digestion requires heat in its chemical 
reaction, and as the nervous system should not be disturbed while 
engaged in assisting the process of digestion, bathing after meals is 
injurious. 

Re-action is known by the pleasant glow of warmth that is felt 

through the body after bathing. If the extremities remain cold, the lips 

and nails remain blue, the reaction is not good, and the bath should be 

omitted. 

PLAIN RULES TO BE OBSERVED. 

Bathing in the open air is preferable, provided there does not exist a 
too great degree of difference between the temperature of the water and 
the atmosphere. 

The head should be sponged before and after the bath. 

After violent exercise, the system being weakened in consequence, no 
bathing should be used until after a sufficient rest has been had to restore 
the natural forces. 

When the body is in a high degree of temperature, care should be 
taken not to dip it in a very low degree of water. Bathing is useful at 
all seasons, when the above rules are observed. 

As soon as children walk, they should be promenaded twice a day, 
except during wind}^ or damp days. It makes no difference how cold it 
is; clothing and exercise will keep them warm, and their cheeks will 
have that healthy glow which is stimulated by fresh air. During hot 
weather, they should be taken out during the cooler hours of morning 
and evening. The length of the promenade should be in proportion to 
their strength, never beyond it. 

During the walk, the children should be amused by showing them 
objects of interest ; the walk ought to be to them a pleasure, not a bug- 
bear. After the fourth or fifth year, children should be allowed to play 
such games as are consistent with their strength. Girls should not be 
restrained from joining the boys. Such games as would amuse the mind, 
as well as exercise the body, are very healthful, since they maintain a 
proper equilibrium between mind and body. 






PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 273 

Let not a false sense of gentility keep the parent from allowing the 
children of both sexes to enter on the rough-and-tumble of their innocent 
plays. A doctor was called to attend the child of a refined lady. He 
saw before him a pale, sickly little boy, beautifully arrayed in an immac- 
ulate white dress. a My dear madam," the doctor bluntly and quickly 
observed, " your child is dying of over-cleanliness." Do not suppose 
that the doctor was in favor of dirt : no, he meant that to keep a child so 
intensely clean, was to deprive it of that healthful exercise and pleasure 
which children find in playing on the ground. The mother took the 
hint, and sent her child out to play, with fewer injunctions to her maid; 
and, not long after, she was delighted in seeing that the pallid cheek had 
acquired a rosy hue. If her sense of gentility was shocked, her heart 
bounded with joy to see her child in perfect health. 

Many mothers object to girls romping. Those mothers should 
remember that the health of their girls is as important as the health of 
their boys, and that it will require no less exercise of the body, and 
pleasure of the mind, to preserve it. The great Dr. Abernethy, on being 
consulted by a mother in regard to the failing health of her young 
daughter, said, " Don't come to me ; go buy a skipping rope." 

HEALTHFUL EXERCISE. 

To this we may add, let her run the hoop, play tennis, croquet, play 
horse, battle-dore and shuttle-cock. She will come in with a rush, her 
hair dishevelled, throwing it on one side with a jerk of her head, like a 
colt. She may not look like a lily peeping out of its leaf, but she will 
be vigorous, healthy, and robust ; and, when older, she will not go to her 
parents with her headaches, backaches, and faintness. Excesses should 
be avoided, and the use of the swing forbidden : swinging determines 
blood to the head. 

If the children come in too warm, letTthem not sit down in a cool 
room ; if they come in hungry, do not let them eat, except after a little 
rest, when the circulation is quieted. Let them not drink a glass of ice- 
water while in profuse perspiration. Should they come in with wet feet, 
make them take off their stockings, plunge their feet in cold water for a 
minute or two, then rub them red and dry with a coarse towel : this 
treatment will prevent them from taking cold. 

After the skin, the most active organ of the child is the stomach, 
and digestion the most important of all its functions. 
18 



/ 



274 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 

Under the paragraphs on "Lactation," the subject of feeding an 
infant has been fully treated. 

Dentition is, however, the signal for a new system of diet. From 
the moment when the child has four teeth, vegetable matter, such as 
bread, rice, sago, semoline, and barley, may be mixed with its milk ; this 
will accustom the stomach to gradually receive vegetable food. Later, 
soft-boiled eggs, a tender piece of mutton or beef, the wing of a chicken, 
may be added, thus accustoming it to receive animal food. 

A child should eat lightly, but oftener than fully grown people. Its 

digestion is quick, and its stomach requires quicker supplies. It is well 

to accustom the child to regular hours, but it should not go too long 

without food. If a child is hungry between its regular meals, a piece of 

bread and butter, or fruit, will satisfy the appetite, and not hurt it. If 

there are articles of food unfit for the child, it is cruelty to expose it to 

the temptation without gratifying him : therefore, a child under four 

years of age should not occupy a seat at the table with grown people, 

unless they select to have such articles of food as would be innocuous to 

the child. 

IMPORTANCE OF REGULAR HABITS. 

Great attention should be paid the evacuation of children. They 
should be induced to make the proper evacuations with regularity. When 
this regularity is established as a habit, it will be a great source of health 
and comfort during their whole life. 

Children require a great deal of sleep. They are so active that they 
would become exhausted if sleep did not give them a good intermission 
of rest. But the sleep should be natural : it should never be induced by 
artificial or medical means, which are very dangerous to their delicate 
brain. 

Never awake a child suddenly, for the surprise may cause a fright, 
to be followed by terrible consequences. When the child awakes, it should 
see familiar faces or things : the sudden presence of a stranger is some- 
times enough to throw it into a fit. Children should go to bed early, and 
rise early ; their bed should be rather hard than soft, and they should 
never be too heavily covered. Many poor children turn and toss in their 
crib, simply because the cover is too heavy or too warm for them. 

The nervous system of a child is so impressible that care should be 
taken never to expose it to hideous objects. Do not startle a child with 
sudden brusqueness ; do not relate to it unpleasant stories, or try to sub- 



PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 275 

ject it to your will by threatening it with imaginary apparitions of 
monsters. The child will dream about these things, startle from his 
sleep with a piercing cry, and you will find him trembling with a cold 
sweat upon his brow. Such shocks predispose a child to water-on-the 
brain. Very susceptible children require great tenderness and a patient 
training to accustom them to the sight of objects which, however harm- 
less, cause them terror. 

School Days. — When children have reached the age of study, and you 
send them to school, remember that nature has provided that the organs 
should be developed before the mind ; that the muscles require exercise 
for their development, and that the mind should not be forced beyond 
its capacity. Precocious children are seldom healthy. Do not sacrifice 
the body to the mind ; for, if the former withers, the latter must wither 
also. While some application is necessary to the training of the mind of 
children, too much will exhaust it and render it feeble. 

CHILDREN STUDY TOO MUCH. 

A child, from the age of seven to twelve, should not study more than 
an hour at a time ; each hour of study being followed by an hour of relax- 
ation. Four hours a day of study is enough for a child of that period of 
life. The system adopted by the majority of schools is too confining. 
From nine to twelve, then half or one hour of relaxation, to return to the 
desk until three or four o'clock, is too exhausting. 

Besides, the collection of many children in one room — particularly 
during the season when doors and windows are kept closed — will consume 
so much oxygen, and generate so much carbonic acid, as to make the 
atmosphere a perfect poison. When children are held for hours, with the 
mind intensely engaged, the body in complete rest, to inhale poisonous 
atmosphere, do you wonder that in time their bodies wither and their 
lungs become weak ? The constant sitting in one position will affect the 
circulation of the stomach and intestines, and implant seeds of dyspepsia 
and constipation. Who was that well-intentioned fool that proposed Satur- 
day as the proper day for children's weekly vacation? That brings two 
days of vacation together, while five are left for constant application. 

Why not select Thursday ? That would divide the labor more 
equally, and the day of rest would be just in time for the repair of wasted 
strength. A rested mind and a vigorous body will learn quickly : a few- 
hours of application then will insure more proficiency than a day's 



276 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 






work of a tired body and an exhausted mind. In the latter case the health 
is impaired ; in the former, preserved. 

Every school should be provided with pleasure-grounds, and some 
apparatus for gymnastics in the open air, where children can find pleasure 
and exercise ; and the teacher should never retain a child in school during 
hours of relaxation by way of punishment. While the teacher may be 
allowed means of discipline for unruly children, he has no right to use 
means that would impair their health. 

HEALTH OF AMERICAN PEOPLE. 

The American people, who have made a glorious and powerful nation 
out of a desolate continent in a few scores of years, have labored beyond 
their capacity ; and the result is a deterioration in the health of their 
offspring. No country abounds so much in dysyepsia, insanity, consump- 
tion, and uterine diseases, as this glorious land. If American women are 
famous for delicacy of features, for fairness of skin, and suppleness of 
limbs, they are famous also for weakness and incapacity for physical 
labor. If American men have built cities in a day and fortunes in an 
hour, they have also filled Europe with valetudinarians, who are now in 
quest of health, and would willingly give for it all they have made in 
losing it. 

The education of girls in this country is above the average of that of 
girls of other nations. This is undoubtedly owing to a very early and 
persistent training of the mind : but, while the mind is built up, the body 
has perished ; and it is the common remark of natives and foreigners, 
that American ladies " do not last." In France, England, Germany and 
Scotland, a woman from thirty to forty is considered in the prime of her 
vigor and beauty ; in the United States, she is passee — in other words, 
prematurely old. 

Where could a Raphael, a Rubens, find in America models for their 
grander paintings? Where could Giulio Romano find a model for his 
giants? A glorious subject of martyrs could be found: they would not 
be martyrs of Christianity, but the martyrs of our schools ; they should 
not elevate the cross as the emblem of their sacrifice, but a pedagague 
and a rod, with an emblazoned banner bearing these mottoes: "Late 
hours," " Ten hours' study," " One hour recreation." 

Those who clamor for woman's rights would better clamor for 
woman's muscle. Let them cry against the onslaught upon girls in 



PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 277 

schools, and not think that, because a woman can talk or address an audi- 
ence, she can clear a forest, man a frigate, tunnel the Alps, build the 
pyramids. If, in refined society, man guards his woman with tenderness, 
and takes all the physical burden upon himself, it is not because he 
desires to appropriate to himself all the prerogatives of labor and liberty ; 
for, where woman is his equal physically, she is allowed to share with him 
both labor and liberty. 

Liberty means labor, as the redeemed slaves have found out. The 
women peasants of Italy, of Germany, France, or Scotland cannot complain 
of being treated like puppets. If only girls were made to have broad 
chests, good hips, developed biceps, as well as mental capacity, they would 
find labor and liberty without clamoring for a vote. The vote, however, 
appears to be coming, and will be here in due time. 

Period of Growth. This is called so only relatively ; for we know 
that the child grows from its very birth. After it has attained the twelfth 
year of age, however, the growth is so rapid, the organs hasten so fast 
to the completion of their development, that the time from that age to 
puberty has been styled " the period of growth." 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND. 

This is the most important and interesting period in the human life ; 
for, after this, the moral habits are formed, and the organs are shaped to a 
fashion in which they will remain ever after. It is during this period 
also, that the mind, heretofore passive and almost totally imitative, springs 
as from its cell into an existence of self-dependence, self-regulation, and 
gives evidence of originality of thought and conception. All the senses 
become more active ; and one can notice the human being gradually 
breaking away from the anchor of parental control, and drifting towards 
the current of life, where it will ever after steer its own course. It is now 
that you will see the fruit of your early instruction ; it is now that the 
imperfections will become apparent ; it is now that artistic touches will be 
required lest the picture is a daub forever. 

It is also at this period that latent diseases often develop themselves ; 
and the offspring of parents* who have died of tuberculous consumption 
need now the greatest attention, for in this condition of susceptibility the 
slightest indiscretion is often the spark that kindles a fatal tire in the 
young and tender body. 

It has already been stated that this period is marked by very notable 



278 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 

changes, and particularly in the organs of generation. This development 
will infuse a new stimulus into 'the organism heretofore unknown to the 
child. It is not agreeable to our self-love to speak of ourselves as animals ; 
but, unfortunately, our nature has an animal side which even our conceit 
cannot destroy. 

Young men have a great advantage over girls in their youthful 
exercises : they always add pleasure to it. That is important. A walk 
will soon become irksome when it must be made in a particular street, 
under the surveillance of Miss " Propriety." A hearty laugh, a loud 
voice, so natural during that period of exuberant life, is quickly hushed 
up by the green eyes of that ignorant regulator. 

FLOCKS OF "SICK CROWS." 

I well remember, during my own boyhood in Italy, when it was the 
fashion among the rich classes in Europe to turn over the care and edu- 
cation of their children to seminaries, the long and pale faces, the timid, 
spirit-smothered boys, that used to file in procession through the streets 
and in the parks. The free boys would style them " the sick crows ; " 
and in their sports those poor " crows " always come in last. They were 
buffeted and ridiculed by the young scamps, from whose every pore ran 
out energy, health and activity. The lessons of the " crows " would be 
well rendered, they were well drilled, no doubt; but the success in life 
was carried by the healthy, strong and disorderly crew of the free boys. 

If young men have cricket, foot-ball, base-ball, hunting, fishing, 
boating, and innumerable games that cheer their mind and exercise their 
body, why should not girls have games and sports appropriate to their 
sex. Rowing is an exercise not only healthy, but graceful, for a woman. 
Swimming is as healthy and necessary to their life as to men's. Gym- 
nastics can be adapted to their strength. Riding is exhilarating and 
very healthful. 

Higginson well says : " Indeed, there is something involved in the 
matter far beyond any mere physical necessity. All our natures need 
something more than mere bodily exertion : they need bodily enjoyment. 
There is, or ought to be, in all of us a touch of untamed gypsy nature, 
which should be trained, not crushed." Even danger adds zest to our 
actions. The same author, alluding to gymnastics, says, " If it does you 
good you will enjoy it ; if you enjoy it, it will do you good. With body, 
as with soul, the highest experience merges into pleasure." 



PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 279 

Dancing is, without doubt, one of the most pleasurable exercises 
known. It is a period of intermission from the cares and sorrows of the 
world. It is an indication of a healthful state of body and mind. A 
mind borne down by care or grief, a body weakened by disease, cannot 
dance. If wholesome, where comes in the danger, then? It is not 
dancing that is injurious, it is the heated rooms, the excess, that re-acts 
unfavorably on the body ; it is the current of cold air that is often allowed 
to rush through hot and crowded parlors ; it is the heavy supper that is 
almost always the concomitant of hospitality. 

The exercise of dancing increases the action of the lungs ; hence 
girls should not wear tight belts or tight corsets. It exercises the 
muscles of the foot, which, therefore, should not be incased within narrow 
and unyielding shoes. 

INCONSISTENCY OF HUMAN NATURE. 

Morally, many object to dancing; to those I say, " Honi soil qui 
mat y pense " (evil to him who evil thinks). While the mind is engaged 
in the pleasurable and invigorating exercise of dancing, seldom does it 
plunge into unworthy and prurient thoughts. Many parents object to 
dancing who do not object to their daughter staying alone in a parlor 
with a young man, taking a walk or a drive with him. Strange incon- 
sistency of human nature. 

If you have confidence enough in the integrity of your daughter to 
allow her so much freedom, why should your confidence lessen when she 
clings to the arm of the young man dancing in your presence, and amidst 
your friends ? The plea is given that a young girl cannot select her 
partner ; that is a mistake. A sensible girl can so comport herself that 
only those that she prefers will ask her to dance. Seldom does a young 
man insist upon dancing with a young woman who has aversion to him. 

The dance has always been a part of all joyful occasions. Dancing 
is an accompaniment to happiness. Sober men have danced at joyful 
news ; Christians have memorialized their triumphs by a dance ; the 
most innocent and upright people dance. Dangers surround us at all 
times, and wickedness can be concocted during a dance. So a lemon-peel 
has been the cause of a broken neck ; yet lemons are retained as a useful 
article, and they have not been proscribed. 

"There are many intelligent, excellent and conscientious people who 
think that dancing is an innocent and healthful amusement, tending to 



280 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 

promote ease of manners, cheerfulness, social affection and Health of mind 
and body ; that evils are involved only in its excess ; that like food, study, 
or religious excitement, it is only wrong when not properly regulated ; 
and that, if serious and intelligent people would strive to regulate rather 
than banish this amusement, much more good would be secured." — The 
American Womaii's Home. 

A very pleasing and useful study for a girl, one in which she can 
learn, amuse her mind and exercise her body, is botany. But a girl 
should not study botany on preserved leaves or flowers, or on beautiful 
colored plates, but in the meadows, on the hills, amidst the rocks. Her 
mind will be engaged in the search after a favorite plant, her body exer_ 
cised in the effort to attain her object. This study would induce her to 
the cultivation of a home-garden ; there she can dig, plant, trim, and love 
her flowers. She can dirty her liands and tan her face ; but under these 
coatings there will be the glow of health. It will not be a lost lesson ; 
for, when older, her knowledge of the plants and herbs will greatly assist 
her in assuaging the pains of the sick or supplying the needs of the poor. 

WHAT DRESS IS INTENDED FOR. 

Dress is not intended to be simply a cover to our nakedness : it has 
been invented in civilized countries as a protection of the body from 
vicissitudes of weather, and sudden changes from a high to a low degree 
of atmospheric temperature. Dress is to maintain within the body a 
certain amount of heat required for the circulation of our blood, the 
actions of our organs, muscles, and limbs. We know the effect of 
extreme cold on the human body, hence we can easily imagine that even 
in the intermediate degrees they must produce effects, which, although 
not instantly fatal, will, nevertheless, induce changes in our system 
incompatible with the laws of health. 

The object in dressing being to prevent the evaporation of necessary 
heat from the body, it follows, that, according to the elevation or falling 
of the surrounding temperature, the dress must be adapted. To main- 
tain this equilibrium, the body must be equally dressed all over. 

As the temperature affects the circulation, it follows, that, when the 
dress is partial, the temperature is unequal, and the circulation, of course, 
unequal also. 

From the moment the circulation is unequal, the blood flows more 
freely in one part than another. The part more exposed to evaporization 



PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 281 

or to a lower degree of surrounding temperature, must have a circulation 
slower than the parts protected from both. The cooling of the surface 
is induced by the contraction of the capillaries, which drives the blood 
away from those parts, making them very sluggish, to other parts, very 
active. From the moment this fact is established, the equilibrium is 
disturbed, and the human machine deranged in its operations. 

The great study of keeping a clock in perfect running order is to 
maintain the equilibrium of forces amongst the different parts. When 
one part, like the pendulum, chain, spring, or wheel, is differently affected 
by the surrounding temperature, the expansion becomes unequal, the equi- 
librium is lost and the clock is out of order. Philosophical mechanics 
have discovered this, and have used every skillful means to balance the 
gain and losses in the expansion of the metals, or by using metals of 
equal susceptibility, etc. If we are so careful with clocks, why are we 
not with ourselves. 

APPARATUS FOR HEATING HOUSES. 

Civilization, with all its wonderful apparatus for heating houses, will 
have done a great injury to mankind, unless it provides also the means 
to protect us when we leave our luxurious homes for the house of God, 
the open temple of his wonderful creation, where the sun is the only fire, 
and its satellites the only luminaries in its absence. 

The transition from 70 Fahrenheit, within our abodes, to zero with- 
out, must be productive of sudden changes in our circulation, unless 
clothing prevents it, by being equally and sufficiently spread over the 
entire body. 

The feet that touch the ground, which, in its cooled state, would 
absorb much of their heat, need adequate protection, else the equilibrium 
would be disturbed, and a cold would be the consequence. The dress of 
women is not calculated to protect their lower limbs and the abdomen as 
well as the upper part of the body : this is another great and general 
source of disturbance of that equilibrium. Those former parts become 
sluggish in their functions, and finally the seat of permanent derange- 
ment ; the bowels become costive, the womb subject to congestions, con- 
gestions inducing painful menstruation, leucorrhcea, prolapsus, ulcera- 
tion, etc. 

The chest, or thorax, that contains our most noble organs, if not 
equally protected, will be liable to the same functional derangements. 



282 PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 

The lungs being thus subjected to a flux and reflux, quite irregular, will 
become disorganized : coughs, sore throats, pleurisy, pneumonia, con- 
sumption, must follow. The heart, the recipient and propeller of the 
blood, must become deranged when this fluid is constantly varied in its 
flow. 

If more blood is driven to it from the periphery of the body than its 
natural capacity can receive and propel, the heart must become enlarged 
and enfeebled ; its delicate valves, that are to open or close according as 
the heart receives or expels, must become troubled, and finally disorgan- 
ized ; and then we have a frightful condition of things, which can only 
bespeak an early death. The liver, kidneys, etc., are subject to the same 
influences and the same risks. 

Fine shoulders and alabaster bosoms are beautiful to see. On the 
same principle, you might bare other parts equally beautiful ; fortunately, 
decency has put limits to such exhibitions. But why it should be 
more decent to expose a beautiful arm or bosom than a beautiful leg or 
thigh, is more than any philosopher can explain. Fashion, O, fashion ! 
thou art the devil in sheep's clothing, indeed ! 

EFFECT OF PRESSURE AND TIGHT LACING. 

As it is with partial exposure, so it is with tight lacing. Pressure 
drives blood away from the parts, the veins and capillaries being intensely 
elastic. Pressure not only prevents development of the parts, but actu- 
ally causes absorption of the tissue. Tie a leg sufficiently tight to 
prevent the circulation of the blood for any length of time, and it will 
dwindle into an incredible smallness. 

Commence early, therefore, in the education of dress. It is beauti- 
ful to look on the dimpled arms, chest, and legs of an infant ; but think 
of the consequences ! The idea that exposure makes them hardy is not 
bad ; but then expose all parts equally, and do not keep them for eighteen 
hours in a temperature of 70 , and six hours in an atmosphere from 
io° to zero. 

If your manner of living forces you into these incongruities, see 
that your child goes out into the fresh air with a body equally covered. 
Bare legs and arms are not conducive to its hardiness when the other 
parts are heavily clad. Better that it should go naked, like the savages, 
and that your houses had no fire. 

Mothers, read and think of this ! It is truth. See to your infants. 



PHYSICAL TRAINING OF CHILDREN. 28S 

Pleasure-grounds and shady sides have sent millions of little beings to a 
desolate grave. It is not the fault of the pleasure-grounds nor of the 
shady sides ; but it is the sitting on the grass and on the earth of a 
temperature much lower than the body, when the clothes that come 
between serve only to cover it from sight, not to protect it from the 
absorption of its heat. If a child is lightly clad, spread a shawl or a 
cushion underneath : a grown person in the same condition would do the 
same ; it is only those delicate little creatures that are allowed such care- 
less treatment. 

We all love to see children looking pretty, cunning, and attractive. 
Fashion does a great deal towards the attainment of this aim. Let us 
commence from the period that a girl-baby leaves off her long robes for 
the short skirts. The mother will take care that the baby's chest is well 
covered: the pretty limbs, however, will be exposed, the little stockings 
short, and the drawers made of cotton or linen, but thin. If the child 
goes out, " Nurse, put a sacque on the baby, and do not let her go out 
without her hat ; it is cool to-day." Unless it is decided winter, no addi- 
tional clothing is suggested for her limbs or abdomen. 

The child goes out, sits on the grass or dirt, the temperature of 
which, being lower, robs the child of some of the heat from her legs and 
the lower part of her body. So the child goes from year to year, without 
much difference in her apparel ; the dress of the lower half of the body 
being much less in proportion than the dress of the upper half. The 
putting on of an extra skirt does not help this difference a great deal. 
In a small child, the skirts are so short that I cannot consider their 
efficiency in keeping the child warm any better than an umbrella carried 
above one's head. The cold air must necessarily get under the skirts ; 
and the warmer the body the quicker the air will rush up, on the prin- 
ciple of a flue. In this way the temperature of the body of the girl, from 
her waist down, is kept for several years lower than that of her body from 
the waist upwards. 

The consequence is serious in the extreme. Every one knows that 
cold contracts the skin, veins, and arteries, and propels the blood from 
the surface. Put your hand in ice-water for a few minutes, and you will 
see it shrunk and colorless : the blood has been driven from it. This 
process is going on all the time that the child is less warm in one part of 
the body than in the other. In the coolest part, the circulation become - 
slower as the blood is driven away. 

\ 




yj 



DISEASES of CHILDREN 




<s^< 







CHAPTER XXIII. 

N a work of the present limits it is impossible to speak of all 
the ailments incident to women and children, therefore refer- 
ence only is made to those of the most important and intract- 
able character — the leading features of which are succinctly 
and faithfully presented. It is, however, not expected that 
females uneducated in medicine will be enabled to treat all 
the forms of disease mentioned in this volume. Diseases 
not unfrequently assume a very severe form, both in children 
and grown persons ; hence the attention of some skillful prac- 
titioner will be promptly required, in order to maintain the 
vis vitce (vital strength) of the organism from the ravages of the 
maladies. 

Before entering upon the subject of children's special diseases, it 
will be necessary to treat of irritation, as it is a condition frequently 
occurring in children, and sometimes mistaken for inflammation. 

Irritation, from irrito, to* excite, is produced from some exciting cause 
operating on some part of the system, and thence extending to other 
organs or parts, through a law of sympath}^. The younger and more 
delicate the child, the more susceptible is its constitution to irritating 
causes. For instance, the slightest pressure of the teeth against the 
dental cartilage or gum in an infant, is sufficient to produce the most 
alarming symptoms, such as convulsions, and other cerebral derange- 
ments. 

Again, irritation of the bowels, liver, etc., will cause bilious derange- 
ments, diarrhoea, or cholera infantum, and a long train of other maladies. 
It is thus perceived that it is highly important to possess a correct idea of 
irritation, before attempting to combat either its effects or the diseases 
concomitant of its influence. 

As a celebrated writer has well remarked, a knowledge of this influ- 
ence is as essential to the medical practitioner as the compass is to the 
mariner. It is a guide to him in the detection of disease, and enables 
284 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 285 

him to use proper remedies for its removal, which he could not otherwise 
command. It will also prevent, in many instances, the use of depleting 
means with a view of allaying inflammation, when the system, in fact, is 
only under the influence of some morbid excitement or irritation. Unfor- 
tunately for patients, many acute diseases are treated as the result of 
some inflammatory action or organic lesion, and, accordingly the system 
is reduced by blood-letting and other antiphlogistic treatment, when the 
disorder is nothing more than simple irritation. 

Many children, with naturally strong constitutions, are compelled to 
struggle through a course of treatment based upon inflammatory action. 
Thus it is that a large majority sink under such treatment. The bills 
of infantile mortality most abundently attest this fact. It is palpable 
that nearly all the diseases of children arise from irritation and not from 
inflammation ; hence the barbarous system of depletion, in such cases, 
cannot be too severely condemned. It but adds injury to injury, or fuel 
to the flame, in order to extinguish it ! 

IRRITANTS TO BE AVOIDED. 

Dr. Copeland, speaking of the Pathology of Irritation, observes, that 
if an irritant or stimulus acts upon a living tissue or organ, certain 
changes are produced. If the digestive organ be acted upon by an irri- 
tant, certain actions are increased or modified ; while if the irritant be 
increased, the irritation is increased and extended to other parts. Any 
function of a part may be more or less modified by the application of an 
irritant, or be so disordered as to be completely overturned. 

If a portion of the intestinal canal be irritated by mechanical or 
chemical stimuli, its contractility is augmented — the secretion and circu- 
lation of the canal more or less accelerated, and the sensibility increased, 
causing pain, in more or less degree of acuteness. In addition to these 
local changes, if the irritatives be increased, the influence is extended to 
different parts, through the medium of the nervous system. 

In this way one organ is made to sympathize with other and more 
remote organs. Hence, an irritant applied to the stomach may extend 
to the intestines and produce colic pains ; or to the liver, causing an 
increased flow of bile; or to the lungs, heart or brain and excite morbid 
action and distress. 

Again, if an irritant be applied to the kidneys, it may produce not 
only symptoms of inflammation in them, but the irritation may extend to 



286 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

the stomachy through the nervous connection, and cause vomiting ; or it 
may extend to the genital organs, and greatly excite and injure them. 

Similar sympathy may arise from teething, and produce vomiting, 
purging, griping, with green bilious, discharges, as the result of the irri- 
tation extending to the stomach, liver and intestinal canal ; or it may 
extend to the brain and spinal cord, producing convulsions and coma. 
Improper food taken into the stomach, or worms in the intestinal canal, 
produce similar symptoms. 

External impressions, such as fear, etc., may produce convulsions, 
and symptoms of apoplexy, in children. Hood, in his work on diseases 
of children, gives two striking cases in this regard. A nobleman having 
anxiously desired a son to be born to him, in order to inherit his fortune 
and title, his wishes at length were gratified. Preparations were made on 
a grand scale for the infant's christening, which ceremony was to take 
place at night, in a brilliantly lighted room. When the child was brought 
in for such purpose, the sudden flare of light caused instantaneous con- 
vulsions, from which the infant soon after died. 

FATAL EFFECTS OF FRIGHT. 

The other was a case, also, where the first-born son of a noble family 
was to be christened. The bishop had arrived to perform the sacred rite, 
when the servants knocked so loudly at the door that the child was 
frightened, and died of convulsions in consequence. 

Irritation when slight may be confined to the part, but cannot exist 
long without other organs experiencing the same disorder through the 
sympathetic and cerebro-spinal nervous system. 

The more susceptible the nervous system, the more readily are these 
symptoms between the organs set up. This is well illustrated in the 
delicate female laboring under uterine irritation. The sympathy will 
extend from the uterus to the stomach, and produce derangement of that 
organ ; to the heart, and cause palpitation ; to the head, and produce 
neuralgia ; or to other parts of the system, and thus excite the symptoms 
of a variety of other diseases. Flatulence in the stomach is a very com- 
mon exciting cause of palpitation of the heart. So will deranged liver 
and stomach produce the same result. Hence, a physician should have a 
full knowledge of the law of sympathy before attempting to treat or 
remove disease from the organism. 

In all organized beings, there is a natural or normal susceptibility; 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 287 

called by some a normal irritability peculiar to trie nervous system. This 
susceptibility is increased by debility of the nervous system, which makes 
the whole organism more susceptible to irritating causes. This is seen 
in a child with its health impaired by teething. It is then more liable to 
cold from exposure, particularly of the lungs. Mothers, accordingly, 
should never expose the tender infant's neck and arms, when their own 
systems would revolt at such unnatural treatment. Thousands of chil- 
dren are annually sacrificed by this foolish and cruel habit alone. 

As children advance in age, the susceptibility diminishes, and there 
is less liability to irritability from exciting causes. We may compare the 
infant, by way of analogy, to the delicate shoot from the parent plant or 
shrub. It will wither and die from the slightest frost, while the parent 
tree or plant is not materially affected by the winter's blasts. 

DIFFERENT TEMPERAMENTS OF CHILDREN. 

There are some temperaments more liable to irritating influences 
than others. Children of the nervous and sanguine are more susceptible 
to irritabilities than those of the bilious or phlegmatic temperaments. 
The nervous and sanguine are characterized by light eyes and hair, and 
fair skin ; the bilious and phlegmatic have dark hair,*eyesand skin. The 
former are much more susceptible to medicines than the latter. 

The temperaments are sometimes mixed — the nervous and sanguine 
uniting, or the nervous and bilious, in the same individual. It is neces- 
sary that the temperaments of children be studied as well as their 
physiognomy. The latter is of the most importance to the medical 
practitioner. In fact, no physician can be successful in the treat- 
ment of children, unless he can diagnose from the physiognomy of the 
child. 

It is said of the celebrated physician Andral, that he had such a 
knowledge of physiognomical presentations of diseases, that he could, by 
surveying the features of a patient, detect the disease lurking in the 
system, and point it out without questioning the patient. 

The illustrious Haller expresses himself thus : u It is the will ot 
God, the great Author of society, that the affections of the mind should 
express themselves by the voice, the gesture, but especially by the coun- 
tenance. Nor is this species of language wholly denied even to the brute 
creation. They, too, by signs, express their love of kind, social friend- 
ship, maternal affection, or rage, joy, grief, fear, and all the more violent 



288 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

emotions. A dog easily discovers whether you be angry with him, by 
your face and tone of voice." 

The physiognomy of countenance has been ably treated by Lavater, 
who asks : — 

" Does the human face — the mirror of the Deity — that masterpiece of 
the visible creation, present no appearance of cause and effect ; no relation 
between the external and the internal, the visible and the invisible, and 
the cause which produces ?" As to physicians, he remarks : — " The 
physiognomy of the patient frequently instructs him better than all the 
verbal information he can receive from the invalid. It is astonishing 
how far some physicians can carry their sagacity in this respect." 

DERANGEMENTS OF THE STOMACH. 

The author of the present volume was called, not long since, to see 
the son of a physician, who labored under a disorder that seemed to baffle 
all the remedies applied. The lad was about twelve years of age, of a 
sanguine temperament. The writer found him in a comatose state, in 
which he had lain for twelve hours. The remedies had been used without 
any effect, from a belief that the cause of disorder was confined to the 
brain. When the author saw the expression of his countenance, he came 
to the conclusion that the stomach was at fault. 

This proved the fact on examination. A few cups and a blister to 
the stomach cured the lad before morning, to the astonishment of the 
father, who had looked upon the case as hopeless. An emetic would have 
afforded relief much sooner, but it could not readily be given owing to the 
coma. 

Another case, equally striking, may be mentioned. I was called in 
haste by a physician, to consult with him in a severe case of cerebritis, or 
inflammation of the brain. The patient was a powerful and muscular 
man, mate of one of the Liverpool packets sailing out of the port of 
Philadelphia. He was over six feet in height, and weighed about two 
hundred and twenty pounds. He lay insensible in the bed, bedewed with 
a cold perspiration, his clothes as effectually saturated as if he had been 
dipped in a pool water. His pulse was about sixty, and very weak. His 
countenance indicated gastric derangement ; on examination, my suspi- 
cions were verified. He was accordingly cupped over the stomach and 
consciousness speedily returned, and the next day he was well, except 
feeling a little weak. 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 289 

Here are two striking cases, showing that an irritation of a local part 
had the power to affect the brain through a sympathetical influence 
alone. They will illustrate the importance of studying physiogomy in 
diagnosing diseases. 

From an inspection of a child's countenance much information may 
be gained. If a child looks heavy about the eyes, has a pale face, and 
moves and rolls its head from side to side, and cries frequently, it is an 
evidence that it suffers from headache. If it frowns and dislikes the 
light, it shows some derangement in the circulation of the brain. If the 
pupil is dilated and remains so on exposure to light, we may rest assured 
there is congestion of the brain. 

Should the pupil contract powerfully on exposing the eye to the 
light, it is evidence of irritation of the brain. If the features seem 
pinched (the muscles of the forehead contracted), and if there be bluish- 
ness around the upper lip, the edges of the nose and angles of the mouth, 
or if the legs be drawn up and the child screams and starts — if there be 
any or all of these appearances — they will present evidence of griping 
from flatulence or acidity of stomach or bowels. 

EVIDENCE OF IMPOVERISHED BLOOD. 

If the lips, tongue and mouth are dry, and there is a throwing of the 
hands back of the ear, it is an evidence of pain in the gums from 
teething. 

If the child's flesh feels soft and flabby, blue veins appearing upon 
the forehead and between the eyes, and its features are pale, with little 
life or animation, it is evidence that the child has impoverished blood. 
In such children, according to Dr. Hood, there is danger of that alarming 
and fatal disease, usually called laryngismus stridulus or crowing respira- 
tion of infants. 

The skin is also a guide. If it be bluish-white and " pasty " it is an 
evidence of the impurity of the blood ; of a " dirty yellow/ 1 it indicates 
deranged liver. If the skin is dark and dry, it is an evidence of irrita- 
tion in some of the vital organs. 

The position of the child is also a guide to the physician. If it 
seems to be lying naturally, with its arms folded, and thighs drawn up 
toward its belly, and tying on its side, it is a sign that the child in doing 
well, and not suffering from any great amount o( irritation or derange- 
ment of the system. These facts and views cannot be too attentively 
19 



290 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

considered by physicians and mothers, when treating the diseases to 
which children are subject. 

Teething. — The protrusion of the tooth through the gum takes 
place at different periods in different children. As a general rule, they 
commence six months after birth, and end at two and half years. The 
first are called deciduous teeth, and are twenty in number, ten upon the 
upper and ten upon the under jaw. They usually appear in the follow- 
ing order : — 

i st. Two lower incisors or front teeth. 

2d. Two upper incisors. These usually appear from the sixth to the 
eighth month. 

3d. The first lower molars or jaw teeth. 

4th. The first upper molars. These usually appear from the twelfth 
to the sixteenth month. 

5th. Lower canine or stomach teeth. 

6th. Upper canine or eye-teeth. These usually appear from the 
fourteenth to the twentieth month. 

7th. The four last molars or jaw teeth. These usually appear from 
the twenty-fourth to the thirtieth month. 

THE PERIOD OF CUTTING TEETH. 

Some children are very irregular in cutting their teeth. In a few 
instances they are born with their front teeth already cut. Sometimes 
the lower teeth appear before the upper ones ; while some children do not 
commence cutting them until they are nearly eighteen months old. 

Meckel mentions a case where there was but a single tooth to each 
jaw; and another case where there was none. It is more common, how- 
ever, to meet with an excess than deficiency. 

The cutting of the teeth may produce functional derangement in 
almost every organ of the body, through the irritation and pain occa- 
sioned by the pressure of the tooth against the sensitive dental nerves. 
The brain, stomach, lungs, liver, bowels, and, in fact, every organ and 
function may, separately or combined, become affected through this cause. 

The mother, in most cases, is aware that the child is cutting its 
teeth, and familiar with the fact that its delicate system is liable to receive 
a severe shock from such cause. Hence the dread that mothers have for 
the second summer, which induces many to nurse longer than they other- 
wise would. 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 291 

During dentition, the child becomes restless and peevish ; the mouth 
is hot any dry ; sometimes there is a free flow of saliva ; frequent putting 
the fingers in the mouth ; throwing the hands back of the ears ; wakeful- 
ness and restlessness at night, etc. The irritation may affect other parts 
of the system sympathetically. This is more apt to be the case in weak 
and delicate children, because the system in such cases, is more suscepti- 
ble to irritation than in those of robust constitutions. With some chil- 
dren the brain and spinal-nervous system particularly sympathize, causing 
convulsions, spasmodic twitchings, etc. 

Sometimes the irritation extends to the lungs, producing obstinate 
and protracted cough ; or to the stomach and bowels, causing sickness, 
vomiting, and looseness of the bowels. If the looseness of bowels is only 
moderate, it acts favorably by relieving the brain. Sometimes the irrita- 
tion extends to the skin, inducing eruptions which may continue during 
dentition. The eruption is more apt to make its appearance behind the 
ears or upon the face. 

USE OF MILD LAXATIVE. 

Treatment. — If the bowels are inclined to be costive, they should be 
opened with some mild purgative. 

I have found that a fourth or half drop of the tincture of nux vomica, 
administered two or three times a day, in a little water, to answer better 
in overcoming constipation than any other remedy. 

Purgatives are always objectionable in constipation where there is a 
predisposition that way, as they are apt to render the constipation more 
obstinate than before. If purgatives seem necessary, magnesia or castor 
oil may answer the purpose. 

The child should frequently be offered cold drinks, and its gums bathed 
with cold water. This may be done by saturating a rag with ice-water, 
and placing it frequently on the gums. Looseness of the bowels should 
not be checked unless it is such as to reduce the strength of the 
child, nor should eruptions be interfered with, for their appearance is 
often the salvation of the child. Dr. Parrish was in the habit of imitat- 
ing Nature by blistering behind the ears, and keeping up a discharge, to 
the great relief of the child. 

If the gum is hot, too sore, or too highly inflamed, the child should be 
induced to chew upon some hard substauce, such as ivory or bone. When 
the gum is highly inflamed, and the tooth well advanced, the gums 



292 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

may be divided with a lance or sharp knife. The incision should be 
made through the gum. If the tooth is not well advanced, it is best 
not to lance, on account of the edges uniting and forming a hard 
cicatrix, which makes it more difficult for the penetration of the teeth 
afterwards. 

If alarming symptoms should occur, such as convulsions and 
incessant drainings from the bowels, attended with vomiting, there should 
be no hesitation in lancing the gums. It will often give immediate relief, 
by unloading the congestive capillaries of the gum and lessen the irrita- 
tion. Sometimes it is necessary to lance after a portion of the tooth has 
protruded through the gum, in order to relieve it from pressing against 
the sharp edges of the tooth. This is the case with the eye, stomach, and 
front teeth. 

If there should be sickness of stomach, two or three drops of camphor 
may be added to each dose, and a spice plaster applied to the stomach. 
If the discharge from the bowels continue, or the sickness at the stomach, 
from the irritation of the gum, a small blister behind the ear may afford 
some relief, providing the discharge is kept up. 

TREATMENT FOR CONVULSIONS. 

Some physicians recommend the administration of calomel for the 
green discharges from the bowels, believing it to be owing to some serious 
derangement of the liver. They should remember that the same sympa- 
thetic cause which affects the bowels and stomach, is extended to the liver, 
causing an increased secretion of that origin. Hence the bilious 
discharges. Morphine and aconite will generally break up this sympathy, 
and in that way diminish the discharge, which cannot be done by the 
administration of mercury. 

Should there be convulsions the child should be set in warm water 
with a little mustard dissolved in it. The mere placing the feet in warm 
water will not answer. The lower part of its body and limbs should be 
immersed, and cold applications made to the head by saturating cloths 
with ice-water. The tooth should also be lanced at once, provided the 
gum is swoollen and inflamed. It is surprising to find what instantaneous 
relief is sometimes afforded by lancing the gum. This process relieves 
the pressure on the dental nerves, and removes the bulk of irritation. 

Sponging the child's head and face several times a day with cold 
water, will afford great relief, when there is much fever and hot skin. In 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 293 

weak and delicate children, fresh country air will afford more relief and 
tend to keep down the irritation than all the medicine that can be admin- 
istered. If the child cannot be taken into the country, it should be 
carried early in the morning into the open air, with its body well 
protected from exposure. It should be kept from the night air, while its 
sleeping chamber should be well ventilated. 

Sometimes the submaxillary glands, which are located on the inner 
and lower surface of the lower jaw, will enlarge and suppurate if they do 
not receive attention. I have found that an emetic administered every 
three or four days, has a powerful tendency to promote the absorbents 
and reduce the swelling. Ipecac is the mildest and best emetic that can 
be used. From five to six grains in powder at a dose is sufficient to 
produce free vomiting. If the glands should continue to enlarge, the 
ointment of iodide of potash may be applied. 

The child's diet should receive strict attention. If the mother's 
milk agrees with it, it will require no other nourishment. If it is not 
nursed, the milk from the same cow should be given, after being boiled. 
If the bowels incline to be loose, a cracker soaked in the milk and sweet- 
ened with loaf sugar, with a little nutmeg added, may be used. If the 
child is much debilitated, a little good Port wine may be added to the 
cracker victuals ; or cream half diluted with milk may be given, and 
occasionally a few drops of wine with water and nutmeg, 





DISEASES OF CHILDREN 

(CONTINUED.) 



e^XS^ 




CHAPTER XXIV. 



HOLERA INFANTUM, or Summer Complaint, 
is one of the most fatal diseases of children. 
It usually occurs during the first or second 
summer, frequently from the irritation attend- 
ant upon teething. Another frequent cause is 
improper food and the bad ventilation of the 
apartments in which the children, especially of 
the poorer classes of society, are compelled to 
live. 

Symptoms. — The attack of summer com- 
plaint is usually preceded by diarrhoea, exist- 
ing, in some cases, for some time previously with the 
patient. Sometimes the attack will be instantaneous, 
commencing with violent vomiting and purging. At times 
the stomach is so irritable as to eject everything taken into 
it, even a mouthful of cold water ; at the same time there are spasmodic 
pains in the stomach and bowels. The features become shrunken, the 
skin cool and clammy, the eyes half-closed ; while there is partial insensi- 
bility and twitchings and starting. Insensibility may continue until it 
amounts to coma and death. 

The disease may commence and terminate with these symptoms in 
two or three days, or a shorter period. In those fatal cases, attended with 
insensibility, there is a morbid condition of the brain. The attacks are 
attended usually with fever and quick pulse ; the pulse is also weak or 
corded ; the mouth is hot and dry ; tongue furred ; extremities cool, while 
the surface of the body and head is hot. If the attack is very severe, the 
child weakens rapidly ; the eyes become sunken ; the surface cool and 
pale, harsh and dry. 

In some of the very severe cases, the mucous membrane of the mouth 
294 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 295 

and tongue takes on an aphthous or inflamed condition, the whole surface 
becoming covered with white ulcers or sloughs. Sometimes they present 
a dark-brownish appearance, which is indicative of great debility or pros- 
tration. Frequently an eruption appears upon the body, resembling flea- 
bites, called petechias. The skin also presents a dirty, dull hue, the eyes 
are blood-shot, while the emaciation is in the extreme. 

The discharges from the bowels are as various as are the symptoms. 
At first they seem to consist principally of undigested food, such as 
curdled milk and other coagulated liquids. As they become more copi- 
ous and frequent, they consist of yellow or yellowish-white secretion ; or 
they may be green and slimy. During the disease they seldom present 
the natural fecal odor. The matter vomited is sour, slimy, and sometimes 
a yellowish-green liquid. The disease may continue for weeks or months, 
provided the exciting cause is not removed. 

Causes. Unwholesome food, dentition, ill-ventilated apartments, and 
the increasing temperature of the weather, are the most prominent causes 
of the complaint. 

FIRST STEP IN THE TREATMENT. 

Treatment. The first step in the treatment is to remove the causes 
that keep up the irritation. The second is to allay the irritation. If it 
be the heated and impure atmosphere, the child should be removed to the 
country, if practicable If this cannot be accomplished, it should be kept 
as much as may be deemed advisable in the open air, during the day, by 
airings in the parks, excursions on the water, or in drives about the 
suburbs of towns and cities. I have known a day's trip on the river to 
arrest the most alarming symptoms, when all other curative means had 
failed. I have also known one day's confinement in a crowded and heated 
apartment to bring back the symptoms in their fullest virulence and 
force. Sometimes the mother's milk will disagree with the child. This 
it is sure to do if it contains cholostrum. The mother's anxiety of mind 
may also act as a secondary cause to render the lacteal fluid unfit for the 
child. For full information on this point, see the article on Lactation, 
in another part of this volume. If the exciting cause be dentition, the 
treatment recommended in that article should be employed. If the moth- 
er's milk or her mental anxiety be the cause of the child's illness, a we; 
nurse should be procured, or a resort be had to artificial nursing. 

If the teeth press against the dental nerve, and it be inflamed and 



296 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

reddened, the gum should be lanced. For sickness of stomach, a spice 
plaster should be applied over the entire abdomen. I have known the 
spice plaster to act like a charm in allaying sickness and restlessness. 

The foregoing treatment will answer in most cases where medicine 
will prove of any avail. There are cases in which all treatment fails. 
The child's salvation will then depend upon country air, in conjunction 
with the remedies presented. As a general rule, the gentler the child is 
treated, and the less medicine that is given, the better, to insure its 
recovery to health. Thousands of children are annually virtually 
slaughtered by over-dosing with medicine, instead of allowing Nature an 
opportunity of exerting her recuperative power in overcoming the 
difficulty. 

Scarlet Fever. — This is a disease of fearful mortality among 
children, in some seasons, leaving its desolating effects in many families, 
whether the affluent or humble. 

VARIETIES OP SCARLET FEVER. 

There are four varieties of Scarlet Fever — Scarlatina Simplex, Scar- 
latina Anginosa, and Scarlatina Maligna — usually described by writers. 
We present another form, frequently met with, called by some Scarlatina 
without eruption. 

All these forms are one and the same, only manifesting different 
degrees of severity. In some cases, they are so intimately blended that 
it is almost impossible to designate to which division they belong. 

The first and last divisions are attended with but little danger and 
usually run their course in four or five days. 

The other two forms, if not treated early, will terminate in gangrene, 
sloughing and fatal disorganization of the throat and larynx. 

Scarlet fever is more prevalent in the fall and winter, and usually 
occurs in children after dentition and before puberty. 

Scarlet fever is often mistaken for other febrile diseases, particularly 
measles. It may be distinguished from measles from the absence of the 
catarrhal symptoms, which always accompanying the latter. The rash 
occurs earlier in scarlet fever than in the measles. In the first, it makes 
its appearance on the second day ; in the other, usually about the fourth 
day. Scarlet fever is also accompanied with sore throat and redness of 
the fauces. In scarlet fever, the eruption makes its appearance in a 
small rash, which runs together in patches. In measles, the eruption 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 297 

consists in small circular dots like flea-bites, that cluster together. The 
rash in measles is not near so red as in scarlet fever. 

Scarlatina Simple X. — Chilly sensations, or shiverings, succeeded by 
frequent pulse, headache, nausea, and slight soreness of the throat. In 
about two days or forty-eight hours, the eruption makes its appearance 
upon the face and neck, and gradually extends to the body and extrem- 
ities. The eruption consists of fine red pimples which seem to run 
together and extend over the whole surface of the body. After the erup- 
tion makes its appearance the unpleasant symptoms, such as nausea and 
oppression at the stomach, subside. On the fourth or fifth day, the erup- 
tion has run its course, when the skin desquamates and convalescence 

occurs. 

SYMPTOMS VERY PRONOUNCED. 

Scarlatina Anginosa. — In this variety the symptoms are more 
strongly marked than in the foregoing. The chilliness is greater, the 
pulse stronger, there is more nausea and vomiting, the throat is very 
sore and deglutition or swallowing difficult and painful. The tongue is 
covered with a white or yellowish fur ; the fauces, throat and tonsils are 
swollen, inflamed, and ulcerated ; the voice thick and hoarse, with diffi- 
cult breathing and slight cough. There is severe headache, the eyes are 
swollen and injected, while there is stiffness of the neck and tenderness 
of the abdomen and stomach. 

The eruptions do not usually make their appearance as soon as in 
Scarlatina Simple X ; but occur from the second to the fifth day, and are 
uniformly diffused over the whole body, or in blotches. If the disease 
terminates favorably, the eruptions commence subsiding about the sixth 
or eighth day, and gradually convalescence is established. 

Should the eruptions extend down into the stomach and bronchi 
instead of extending out under the skin, all the symptoms become more 
aggravated ; inflammation of the stomach, bronchi, and brain supervene, 
which, if not speedily arrested, terminates fatally. In this disease the 
inflammation ranges higher than in most other febrile diseases, with a 
strong, bounding pulse. 

Scarlatina Mag Una. — This is the one of the most dangerous dis- 
eases the physician has to contend against. It usually commences with 
the ordinary train of symptoms, as indicated in the last form, but very 
soon gives way to those of a typhoid character, producing groat prostra- 
tion of the system. The pulse becomes less frequent, and weak ; the 



298 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

skin, instead of assuming a bright red appearance is pale ; the heat sub- 
sides below the healthy standard ; the eye becomes dull and suffused ; 
the throat covered with ulcers of a pale ash color ; the fauces and 
larynx becomes swollen and inflamed, as well as the bronchi; an acrid 
discharge passes from the nostrils, and the tongue becomes dry and of a 
dark mahogany hue, followed by diarrhoea and hemorrhage. 

The disease may also extend to the brain, as well as the abdominal 
viscera, causing coma and death. The ulcers of the throat often slough, 
destroying or involving the soft part and cartilages of the larynx. 

In some cases of scarlatina maglina, the eruption does not make its 
appearance upon the surface of the body. In others, a few blotches make 
their appearance and disappear. In another class of cases, most alarm- 
ing symptoms occur, as it were, all at once, overwhelming the vis vitce of 
the system in a few hours, and causing death. 

ABSENCE OF ERUPTIONS. 

Scarlatina without Eruption. — During the prevalence of scarlet fever, 
there are cases of fever and sore throat, which seem to run the exact 
course of the disease. These are said to be capable of imparting scarlet 
fever. 

Cause. — Scarlet fever no doubt results from a morbific contagion. 
This contagion is no doubt diffused through the atmosphere, occurring in 
some sections of country an epidemic. Persons of all ages are liable 
to the disease — adult females more than adult males, and children more 
than either of the other two. It is, however, more fatal to males after 
puberty than to females after menstruation. There is only small liability 
to the disease after the age of fifty. 

Without doubt, scarlet fever, like measles, depends upon an infusoria 
which locate in the mucous membranes of the fauces, and either follows 
the course of the mucous membrane into the stomach and air passages, 
or travels out under the epidermis or outer layer of the skin. 

The idea of the rash striking in after it makes its appearance, is an 
absurdity. The basement membrane of the skin and mucous membrane 
is a matrix in which the infusoria seem to be rapidly nourished. Its 
usual course is outward, under the epidermis. In the malignant form of- 
the disease, it follows the course of the mucous membrane, involving the 
stomach, bowels, and lungs, which being vital organs, must produce dis- 
astrous effects upon the system. 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 299 

In maglignant forms the system is more susceptible to its influences. 
The rapid development of infusoria causes ulceration and sloughing of 
the mucous membrane of the throat, if such development be not speedily 
arrested. This may be readily done, if the proper means be adopted, as 
we shall presently show. 

Scarlet fever is always worse in low, damp, and badly drained 
districts. It has been noticed that feather beds, woolen bed clothes, 
etc., when not exposed to fresh air will retain for a long time the 
contagion. 

Belladonna and chlorine are no doubt preventatives in scarlet fever. 
My own experience fully satisfies me of this fact. I have always met 
with the happiest results from their employment. I have also noticed 
that where belladonna has been used, and the individual took the disease, 
it always assumes a very mild form. 

HOW TO TREAT THE FEVER. 

My plan of administering belladonna is in three drop doses, three 
times a day, having the house well ventilated and chlorine used to purify 
the air of the room. 

Treatment. — If there be difficulty in swallowing, if the throat and 
tonsils are inflamed and swollen, if the face be injected and there be 
suffusion of the eyes, with strong bounding pulse and dry skin, I admin- 
ister an emetic and produce free vomiting. This will reduce all these 
symptoms and afford a more prompt action for other remedies. 

Emetics may be usefully employed during the course of the disease 
if there be swelling of the -throat and other urgent symptoms : or if there 
be evidence cf insensibility or coma, or sickness of the stomach — thus 
relieving the brain, and eliminating the bilious and acid secretions, the 
one being the cause of coma and the other of the nausea, etc. 

Sometimes emetics will fail to act, owing to too great a depression 
of the vital energies of the system. In such cases I usually combine with 
ipecac one grain of Cayenne pepper, or a teaspoon ful of brandy may be 
administered; either of which will wonderfully assist the ipecac in pro 
ducing free vomiting. 

After the stomach is freely evacuated and the bowels acted upon, take 
a solution of the chloride of lime, one ounce to the pint, and swab out the 
throat and mouth with it, provided the child is not too young to apply the 
gargle. The swab may be made by tying a piece oi rag around a stick. 



300 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

If a little of the solution should happen to be swallowed, it will be a 
benefit rather than a disadvantage to the patient. This swabbing should 
be repeated twice a day. The child's body should also be sponged night 
and morning with the same solution. This will destroy the infusoria, and 
thus relieve the throat and mucous membrane of the irritating cause. It 
will also deaden the eruption of the skin, which is also keeping up the 
irritation and promoting the fever. 

There is one important point to be mentioned in connection with the 
treatment of the malignant forms of Scarlet Fever. When I find that 
there is a constant tendency to swelling of the throat and ulceration, I 
always administer an emetic, while if the bowels are inclined to constipa- 
tion, I act gently on them. I afterward commence at once with quinine, 
and the chloride of lime wash. 

PROMPT TREATMENT REQUIRED. 

If there be an increase of pulse and fever while using quinine, I 
either reduce the dose of quinine, or continue it as before, in connection 
with another emetic. This plan will soon relieve the system. 

There is sometimes difficulty in getting children to take this pre- 
paration. In such instances, the tincture of orange peel may be substi- 
tuted for the tincture of cinchona. With the treatment here presented, 
there will be no difficulty in curing the most malignant forms of Scarlet 
Fever, provided the treatment is commenced before the contagion has 
completely overwhelmed the vis vitce (vital strength) of the system. 

MEASLES. — This is an eruptive disease occurring in childhood. It 
sometimes attacks grown persons — and usually more severely than chil- 
dren. Like scarlatina, one attack will generally secure the individual 
against the same disease again. 

Symptoms. — The symptoms at first are very similar to ordinary 
catarrh, commencing with chilliness, running of the nose, red and watery 
eyes, slight soreness of throat, cough, soreness and pain in chest, difficult 
breathing, great heat and thirst, nausea, headache and sneezing are the 
prominent precursory symptoms. These symptoms continue four or five 
days, after which the eruption makes its appearance. It commences gen- 
erally upon the face, usually the forehead, and gradually extends down- 
ward to the neck, breast, back, and finally to the lower extremities. 

The more profuse the eruption the higher the fever, which continues 
unabated until the eruption begins to subside ; which is usually in four 



DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 301 

or five days. On the ninth day they disappear, when bran-like scurf is 
cast of! from the skin. During the course of the disease, the cough is 
troublesome, which is occasioned by the contagion attacking the air 
passages. 

The eruption makes its appearance in small scattered red spots, in 
the centre of which spots we find a small pimple, looking like small flea- 
bites, about the size of a small millet-seed. These, as they grow, unite 
into red spots. They rise above the skin, and feel rough if the hand is 
rubbed over its surface. 

Measles may occur at any time from three days to three weeks after 
the child has been exposed to the contagion. It, however, usually occurs 
from the seventh to the fourteenth day. 

THE ATTACK OF MEASLES. 

Measles may be mistaken for an eruption occurring in dentition, 
accompanied with the usual symptoms of cold, such as sneezing, running 
of nose, redness of eyes, etc. The eruption which resembles measles, 
usually makes its appearance on a different part of the body from measles, 
commencing first on the back and stomach. This eruption is of compara- 
tive little consequence, and depends on derangement of the stomach or 
bowels. With proper treatment and diet, it will disappear in twenty-four 
hours. 

The difference between Scarlet Fever and Measles is well marked. 
The primary symptoms of Measles are sneezing, running of nose, cough, 
hoarseness, red and watery eyes. These are wanting in Scarlet Fever. 

The eruption from Measles appears in spots looking like flea-bites, 
which run together in patches of a semilunar shape, while Scarlatina-rash 
consists of minute pimples, diffused all over the body, producing a bright 
red color. There is also a roughness of the skin in "Measles which is not 
observed in Scarlatina. The color of the eruption is also different — 
Measles being of a purplish or dark scarlet, while Scarlet-rash is of a light 
scarlet color. There is a form of Measles called Rubeola Nigra or Black- 
Measles. They depend upon a low condition of the vital powers of the 
system. A similar condition of system is observed in Malignant Scarlet 
Fever. 

Cause. — Like all other contagious diseases, Measles depends upon 
a species of Infusoria which locates in the air-passages, and are there 
nourished as in- Scarlet Fever. They pass out under the epidermis or 



302 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

outer coating of the skin, as in Scarlet Fever, or they may pass into the 
air-passages and lungs, and thus produce inflammation, and plant the seeds 
of consumption, particularly when they occur in grown persons with 
weak lungs. 

If the vital powers of the system are low, they exert a greater 
influence, while the symptoms are likewise more violent. 

Treatment. — Measles, in ordinary cases, require but a little medical 
treatment. The only danger to be apprehended is from the damage 
which may be done to the lungs by the passage of the infusoria down 
into the air-passages, instead of passing out under the epidermis. 

The bowels should be kept regular, and the patient moderately 
warm. All warm drinks and emetics must be avoided, as their tendency 
is only to increase the fever and eruption, by favoring the development 
of the contagion. 

REMEDIES FOR THIS DISEASE. 

Pulsatilla is especially adapted to Measles — as much so as Belladonna 
is to Scarlet Fever — and may be given to children that have not 
taken the measles in the same family where the disorder exists. If it 
does not prevent the occurrence of measles, it will make the symptoms 
much lighter than they would be otherwise. 

After the eruption disappears in measles, the skin is often found 
to be harsh and dry. If a tepid bath be taken and the skin well 
rubbed, it will change its character and afford great relief to the 
patient. When the eruption disappears and leaves a dry, hacking 
cough, it should be removed as speedily as practicable, otherwise it may 
induce obstinate bronchial inflammation and consumption. 

Croup. — It is only within the present century that a distinction has 
been made between Whooping-cough, Asthma, Bronchitis and Croup. 
Formerly they were regarded as one and the same complaint. By the light 
of modern science, however, we are enabled to distinguish a marked 
difference between these varieties of disorders. 

Under the old treatment of blood-letting and other depletions, Croup 
becomes a formidable disease. By the modern method it may be readily 
subdued and eradicated. It is a disease that seldom occurs after the age 
of eight years. 

Cause. — Croup sometimes appears to be an epidemic, and is more 
prevalent in low, ill-drained localities. Exposure to cold, damp wind is 






DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 303 

a frequent cause. If a child is attacked once with the Croup it is apt 
to occur again. The attack seems to leave a susceptibility in the lining 
membrane of the larynx, trachia and bronchial tubes. 

Symptoms of Croup. — Croup is usually divided into two forms — 
Catarrhal Croup and Pseudo-membraneous or false membranous Croup. 
These two forms may exist at the same time, and it is difficult to 
distinguish them in the commencement of the disease. 

Catarrhal Croip — sometimes called Spasmodic Croup — usually devel- 
ops itself suddenly. The child, on waking from sleep, gives utterance to 
a peculiar, shrill-sounding cough, somewhat similar to the crowing of a 
cock. Sometimes it is preceded with a dry cough and hoarseness for 
some days previous. There is considerable dyspnoea, or difficult breathing, 
which is very distressing. The voice is also rough and hoarse. 

CROUP AND ITS USUAL SYMPTOMS. 

Pseudo, or False Membranous Croup sometimes assumes this form 
from the commencement. At other times it is ushered in with the 
symptoms of Catarrhal Croup, and thus it is impossible to distinguish 
them until the false membrane has commenced forming, when the 
voice becomes whispering, and the cough changes from a ringing or 
sonorous to a husky sound. 

Whenever the voice cannot be raised above a whisper and the fauces 
reveals white paches of exudation, we may be assured that it is the 
worst form of Croup. As the disease advances there is great difficulty 
in breathing, much anxiety of countenance, and an impossibility to raise 
the voice so as to be distinctly understood, with swelling of the throat. 

Treatment. — As soon as Croup is detected, which is generally at 
night, about or little after midnight, the child should be immediately 
taken into a warm room and placed in a tub of warm water, about 
blood-heat, while a towel wet with cold water and wrung out should be 
applied to the throat, and frequently repeated. 

Should the cough continue for several days, a spice plaster placed on 
the chest, will afford great relief. If the disease seems spasmodic, keep 
the child nauseated with ipecac or tincture of lobelia, or pulverized lobelia 
mixed with syrup. This treatment will seldom fail to be successful iu 
catarrhal croup. If a false membrane has formed the outlook is not so 
favorable. 

The best preventive of croup is to sponge the child's body daily with 



304 DISEASES OF CHILDREN. 

cold water, the year round, and rub it dry with a coarse towel. The child 
should be warmly clothed, especially its throat and neck protected from 
damp, chilly atmosphere. Its feet, also, must be kept warm and dry. 

Whooping Cough. — Writers generally recognize three distinct stages 
of whooping cough. 

ist. Forming Stage. — The symptoms are similar to ordinary catarrh, 
such as sneezing, dry cough, watery eyes, headache, oppression in the 
chest, fever, etc., which continue two or three weeks, when the second 
stage commences. This is called — 

2d. Convulsive Stage. — During this stage the cough is paroxysmal, 
of a convulsive and suffocative character. The peculiar whoop is caused 
by the spasmodic contraction of the glottis, giving rise to suffocation and 
difficult respiration during the paroxysm. The paroxysms of coughing 
usually continue from one to five minutes, at the termination of which 
there is usually vomiting and expectoration of ropy mucus. The convul- 
sive stage generally lasts from five to six weeks, when the third stage 
commences, which is called the — 

3d. Declining Stage. — At this stage the symptoms are less severe 
and the paroxysms less violent, and in the course of two or three weeks 
the disease disappears. 

Causes. — The causes, like those of scarlet fever and measles, are 
dependent upon a peculiar miasma, that affects the individual but once in 
his life-time. The system is made susceptible to this influence by colds, 
diseases of the respiratory organs, debility, fatigue, etc. When the disease 
occurs at the latter end of the Spring, it usually runs its course with 
comparative mildness. When it commences at the latter end of Autumn, 
during the Winter, or beginning of Spring, it is more trying to the 
patient — the Eastern and Northerly winds aggravating the cough and 
keeping up the irritation of the air passages. 

Sponging the chest and arms with salt and water or vinegar and 
tepid water, followed by friction, will also be found of great service in 
shortening the disease. Change of air is an effectual remedy when there 
is debility. 







MRS. ROOSEVELT AND QUENTIN, WHEN A BABY 

THE IDEAL AMERICAN MOTHER. 




"WHAT WINNING GRACES, WHAT MAJESTIC MEIN, 
SHE MOVES A GODDESS AND SHE LOOKS A QUEEN.' 











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THE CHARM OF HEALTH AND MATCHLESS GRACE 
IN ALL THE FEATURES OF HER FACE." 




IN THOUGHT DIVINE THAT UPWARD GAZE 
HER PURITY OF SOUL DISPLAYS." 




FAINT HEART NEVER WON FAIR LADY 




WHAT SHALL THE ANSWER BE? 




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CHAPTER XXV. 

ONCERNING the necessity of pure air for 

the preservation of health, this is admitted 

by all, and appreciated only by few. In the 

construction of dwelling-houses, the same 

want of regard to this subject, with here and 

there an exception, is manifest that existed 

forty years ago. In the northern parts of 

our country great pains is taken, by tight 

rooms and double windows, when they can 

be afforded, for shutting the air out, but 

no provision is made in way of regular 

supply for letting it in. 

Very extensively in our farming 
districts the open fire-place, sometimes 
broad enough for a rousing fire of wood 
four feet long, besides a row of children inside the jamb, has given place 
to the close iron stove. The large open fire, when in brisk action, secured 
an adequate ventilation, while the close stove requires onty air enough for 
the combustion of the fuel within. One stove often answers for the 
whole family, during the cold season. The warming, cooking, and 
washing are all done in one room. The exhalations from the cooking- 
vessels, and from the lungs and persons of the whole family, are all 
mixed together, and breathed over and over, to sustain the movements of life. 
Is it to be wondered at that consumption is, as I am assured by some of 
my friends, far more common among the Green Mountains of Vermont 
than it was before the close stove was generally used, as now, instead of 
the open fire ? 

20 306 




306 PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 

In our cities and large villages many a lady, who Has the windows 
of her sleeping rooms opened for a short airing once a day, supposes that 
nothing more is necessary for the twenty-four hours. Speak to her on 
the importance of ventilation, — she agrees with you, remarking that her 
chambers are always ventilated every day. How surprised she would be, 
on being assured that seven to ten cubic feet of air per minute to each 
individual in an apartment should be admitted, in order to maintain its 
atmosphere in a state fit for healthy respiration. 

In sickness, no sanitary influence is of more value than pure air. 
This is especially the case in fevers. In typus, typhoid, and eruptive 
fevers, the exhalations from the bodies of the sick are sometimes so intense 
as to cause nausea and vomiting among the attendants. Soon after I 
commenced the practice of medicine, I had a patient, sick with typhoid 
fever, who was ill cared for, in a badly ventilated room. At one of my 
visits I inhaled effluvia so offensive as to create a nausea that lasted two 
hours. Within five days I was attacked with a similar form of fever, 

which confined me to my chamber for six weeks. 

« 
HORRORS OF A SMALL-POX ROOM. 

Some years since, at Baltimore, I received a horrid impression, which 
I can never forget, from looking into a room, apparently wholly 
unventilated, containing ten colored men with small-pox. In one of our 
large cities I was requested to look in upon my friend, the Rev. Dr. — , 
who, I was told, was sick with scarlet fever. I found him in his bed, 
which lay up snug in one corner of the chamber, although it was a 
large one. 

He was surrounded by bed-curtains, with an opening sufficient to 
allow his friends to peep through and see him. I left the chamber with 
the impression that he would die of that sickness, as he did. In unprom- 
ising cases, the favorable change in the symptoms, when the patient, sunk 
and apparently near to death, is transferred to a cleanly and well-ventilated 
apartment, is sometimes very striking. 

I was once requested to visit two patients, sick of typhoid fever, 
which for several weeks had prevailed in the neighborhood. One was a 
girl of sixteen, whose life was despaired of by her physician. She lay 
in a small bedroom without a window, the door of which opened into a 
larger room warmed by a close stove, the smoke-pipe of which communi- 
cated with the chimney through a fire-board that shut from the room a 



PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 307 

large fire-place. The poor girl lay unconscious, the mouth open and 
dry, the eyes half open, turned upward, motionless and glassy. 

I made a remark that the prospect for life of the patient, in that 
small place, with little else to breathe but the steam of her own body, 
was to my mind very much like that of the persons whose bodies had 
recently been laid in the burial-ground hard by. This remark, if it 
seemed harsh, had the effect to promote a ready observance of the sug- 
gestions which followed/ She was to be removed to a clean bed in the 
large room, the stove and fire-board to be taken away, and a brisk fire 
made upon the hearth, as the weather w T as then cold, — the patient to be 
fed in the small way, with diluent and farinaceous drinks, and to be 
covered with sufficient bed-clothing. In two or three hours conscious- 
ness returned. This was in the afternoon. She slept several hours that 
night, was comfortable the next day, and had a rapid recovery, almost 
without medicine. 

IMPORTANCE OF VENTILATION. 

The other patient, in the same house, had been sick several days, — 
his case not very unpromising, except that he had been daily getting 
rather worse. He was in a small chamber, warmed by a close stove. 
This and the fire-board. were removed, and the room kept well ventilated. 
He, too, recovered under good nursing. How impotent is medicine in 
such cases, compared with pure air. 

Dr. Thayer, in his Report on Practical Medicine, read at the annual 
meeting of the New Hampshire Medical Society, remarking on the 
importance of ventilation in the treatment of disease, refers to the case 
of a large number of " emigrants, who arrived at Perth Amboy, from 
Liverpool, with ship fever, and who, for want of sufficient accommoda- 
tion, were placed in shanties where they were exposed to the pure air, 
the buildings being so loosely constructed that they admitted the rain. 
Of the whole number of eighty-two patients not one died ; of four others, 
who were removed to an ordinary dwelling-house, and who were subjected 
to precisely the same medical treatment, two died." 

Notwithstanding the increasing interest felt upon this subject, there 
is probably not one building in a hundred in our large cities, that is 
erected with due reference to ventilation. Churches and lecture-rooms 
and court-rooms, with but rare exceptions, are fitted up to seethe au 
assembly in the noxious exhalation from two or three thousand pair of 



308 PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 

lungs. I Have seen a chief justice, in a large court-room, fast asleep on 
his high bench. How could he help it? He had been inhaling, for 
several hours, the oppressive vapors of two hundred human lungs and 
skins, unloading themselves of their nauseous animalized odors, mixed 
with liquor and tobacco. 

The influence of sunlight upon organic developments, and its neces- 
sity in the maintenance of health, seem not to have been extensively 
enough appreciated. From want of this vivifying power, the nutrient 
juices are deteriorated, the human countenance becomes pale and waxy, 
and some form of chronic disease is liable to follow. Sir James Wilie, 
for many years physician to the Emperor Alexander and Nicholas, of 
Russia, remarks that in a certain barracks at St. Petersburg the mortality 
on the dark side — that from which the sunlight was always excluded — 
was four times greater than on the side on which the sun shone and 
penetrated into the windows and doors of the apartment ; and this, not- 
withstanding that equal attention was paid to ventilation on the two sides 
of the institution. 

SUNLIGHT AS AN AGENT OP HEALTH. 

At the annual meeting of the New York State Medical Society, Dr. 
Augustus Willard, President of the Society, gave an excellent address 
on the subject of Air, Exercise and Light, in relation to health ; in which 
are presented, in an impressive manner, the claims of sunlight to a high 
place as a hygienic agent. The experience and remarks of that intrepid 
explorer, Dr. Kane, in his two Arctic expeditions, are referred to as 
strongly supporting the position. 

"At the withering temperature, sometimes of 6o° and yo° below zero, 
Dr. Kane and his companions passed two years nearer the north pole 
than had been, in modern times, the wintering place of any voyager 
before them. They had a night of total darkness of more than two 
months in each winter. For one hundred and twenty-four days the sun 
was below the horizon, and one hundred and forty passed before his rays 
reached the rocky shadowings of the brig. Animal life languished. Dr. 
Kane, under date of December 20, — the day preceding their " soltitial 
day of greatest darkness," — makes the following record : — 

" In truth, we were all undergoing changes unconsciously. The 
hazy obscurity of the nights we had gone through made them darker than 
the corresponding nights of Parry. The complexions of my comrades, 



PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 809 

and my own, too, were toned down to a peculiar waxy paleness ; our eyes 
were more recessed, and strangely clear. Complaints of shortness of 
breath became general ; our appetite was almost ludicrously changed, . . 
and our inclination for food was at best very slight ; more than this, our 
complete solitude, joined with the perpetual darkness, began to affect our 
morale" 

January 22. "I long for the day. The anomalous host of evils 
which hang about this vegetating in the darkness, are showing them- 
selves in all their forms. My scurvy patients, — those, I mean, on the 
sick list, — with all the care it is possible to give them, are, perhaps, no 
worse; but pains in the joints, rheumatism, coughs, loss of appetite, and 
general debility, extend over the whole company. We are a ghastly set 
of pale- faces, and none paler than myself.'' 

DISEASE CAUSED BY DARKNESS. 

In his second expedition, Dr. Kane notices the same influence of 
darkness in causing disease; and most of his dogs, u although the 
greater part of them were natives of the Arctic circle, died of an anomal- 
ous form of disease, to which,'' he believes, " the absence of light con- 
tributed as much as the extreme cold." 

Under all the privation and suffering endured by these ice-bound 
explorers in the dreary polar night, it is natural that they should greet 
with joy the approach of day. Says Dr. Kane : " the day is beginning 
to glow with the approaching sun. The south, at noon, has almost an 
orange tinge. In ten days his direct range will reach our hill-tops ; and 
in a week after, he will be dispensing his blessed medicine among our 
sufferers. The coming sun will open appliances of moral help to the 
sick, and give energy to the hygienic resorts which I am arranging at 
this moment. 

" For the last ten days we have been watching the growing warmth 
of the landscape as it emerged from the buried shadow through all the 
stages of distinctness of an India-ink washing, step b} T step, into the 
sharp, bold definition of a desolate harbor scene. We have marked even- 
dash of color which the great painter, in his benevolence, vouchsafed as ; 
and now the empurpled hues, clear, unmistakable; the spreading- lake. 
the flickering yellow, peering at all these poor wretches ! Everything 
superlative lustre and unspeakable glory." 

"I saw him (the sun) once more," says he, "and upon a projecting 



310 PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 

crag nestled in the sunshine. It was like bathing in perfumed water." 
Arctic voyagers are very subject to scurvy. That this liability is 
largely owing to the privation or scanty supply of sunshine can hardly 
be doubted ; while the diet and the extreme cold contribute to the deteri- 
oration of the blood. 

The convicts in our penitentiaries, who enjoy but little of direct 
sunshine, make a singular impression upon the mind of a stranger who 
attends their chapel worship Sabbath morning, — their hair sheared close 
upon their heads, and row upon row of expressionless, waxy faces, 
without a spot of rouge or tint of a brunette upon one of them. 

The physiological influences of an Arctic climate impress the con- 
viction that it was never designed for the comfortable residence of 
human beings. What a mistake, that sunshine must be shut out of 
our houses, and parasolled away from the face, neck, and arms of our 
women, from the lady of the parlor to the girl of the wash-tub. 

SLEEP A NECESSITY. 

It is a law of the animal economy in man and all the inferior tribes, 
that some part of the time must be passed in sleep. This seems to be 
necessary for the renewal of nerve-power, expended under the excitements 
of the waking period, and for restoring the equilibrium of blood-distri- 
bution in parts which, during the same period, have been most exposed 
to changes of temperature, or enfeebled by extra exertion. 

In infancy, the nervous power is largely employed in the processes 
of building up the organs ; hence a great part of the time is passed in 
sleep. Night sleep is more refreshing than day sleep ; and this must be 
true even when daylight is excluded from the sleeping-room. It has been 
asserted that the atmospheric electricity, from eight o'clock in the even- 
ing till four the following morning, has less protective influence over 
the human nerves than at any other period of the same length in the 
twenty-four hours ; that at eight o'clock, p. M., the positive electricity 
begins to wane ; that it sinks to its minimum from twelve to two, 
and is reestablished at four. Be this as it may, it is a noteworthy fact 
that in severe forms of disease, as croup or cholera, the attack is either 
made in that period, or the symptoms aggravated, if the disease had 
already existed. 

Two colonels in the French army had a dispute whether it was most 
safe to march in the heat of the day, or at evening. To ascertain this 






PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 311 

point, they got permission from the commanding officer to put their 

respective plans into execution. Accordingly, the one, with his division, 

marched during the day, although it was in the heat of summer, and 

rested all night ; the other slept in the day, and marched during the 

evening and part of the night. The result was, that the first performed 

a journey of six hundred miles without losing a single man or horse, 

while the latter lost most of his horses and several of his men. 

How many hours should be expended in human sleep ? Putting 

infancy and old age out of the question, the remarks of John Wesley are 

worth considering. He says, " If any one desires to know exactly what 

quantity of sleep his own situation requires, he may very easily make 

the experiment which I made about sixty years ago. I then waked about 

twelve or one, and lay awake for some time. I readily concluded that 

this arose from my lying in bed longer than nature required. To be 

satisfied, I procured an alarum, which waked me the next morning at 

seven, near an hour earlier than I rose before ; yet I lay awake again at 

night. 

JOHN WESLEY AN EARLY RISER. 

" The second morning I rose at six; but, notwithstanding this, I lay 
awake the second night. The third morning I arose at five ; but never- 
theless I lay awake the third night. The fourth morning I rose at four 
(as by the grace of God I have done ever since), and lay awake no more. 
And I do not lie awake, taking the year round, a quarter of an hour 
together in a month. By the same experiment (rising earlier and earlier 
every morning) may every one find how much sleep he really wants." 
Wesley's period was six hours. 

Hon. Joseph Story, an eminent jurist of the United States Supreme 
Court, — an indefatigable student, — required, as he believed, eight hours 
of sleep. From six to eight hours may be regarded as the proper part 
of the twenty-four to devote to sleep. Sleeping too much, like sleeping 
too little, enfeebles and prostrates. The man who eats too much requires 
more sleep to rid him of the excess than he who eats just enough to sup- 
ply the healthy wants of his organs. He is a loser in two ways, — he 
works the machinery of life too hard, and gets a less refreshing rest than 
needful. 

Carnivorous animals sleep, it is said, more than the vegetable-eaters. 
They are day-sleepers, dozing away the time till night, and then prowling 
abroad in quest of their prey. John Wesley's great self-control in eating 



312 PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 

and drinking aids in explaining his six hours' complement of sleep for 
sixty years, under the extraordinary amount of labor which he accom- 
plished. 

In dreaming, the feeling of surprise is never present. Let the ele- 
ments of the dream be ever so incongruous, let the personages dreamed 
of be individuals long since dead, the dream goes on in a bona fide 
manner — the incongruity never once thought of. 

The lapse of time in dreams is not appreciated as in the waking 
state. A dream may run through the mind in a minute, which seems to 
the dreamer to have occupied days, or even years. A person who was 
suddenly roused from sleep by a few drops of water sprinkled in his face 
dreamed of the events of his entire life, in which happiness and sorrow 
were mingled, and which finally terminated in an altercation upon the 
borders of an extensive lake, into which his exasperated companion, after 
a considerable struggle, succeeded in plunging him. 

ABSURDITIES OF DREAMS. 

Opium, in certain doses, increases the absurdities of dreams. I knew 
a physician, several years since, who, under an attack of inflammation of 
the lining membrane of the stomach, had but very little sleep for about 
two weeks. A distinguished medical friend from a distance visited him, 
and prescribed a large dose of laudanum, to be given by injection. The 
patient had a disturbed sleep, and a dream which made a strong impres- 
sion. He saw himself suspended vertically in the air, heels up and head 
down, the head cut off, and remaining nine or ten inches below the body — 
all without any visible means of support, resting as if held quiet and 
motionless by a magnet. Nobody could inform him how long his body 
and head were to remain in that predicament. 

Alcholic drinks often bring frightful images in sleep, and their influ- 
ence sometimes extends to the waking state, as in delirium tremens, call- 
ing up, as if by natural affinity, ferocious beasts, serpents and demons. 
A stomach overcharged with food, especially when mixed with alcoholics, 
makes its appropriate exhibition in the hidden monstrosities of nightmare. 

Cleanliness is entitled to rank as a virtue in those communities 
where eating and drinking are among the leading elements of social 
refinement. Indeed, it is most natural to infer that an organ of so great 
extent as the human skin, and occupied in casting out from the blood 
the worn-out tissues of the several organs, ought to be kept in a state of 



PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEAI/TH. 313 

activity and vigor. In aid of this excretory function, bathing of some 
form is generally regarded as valuable ; and still it cannot be denied that 
great numbers of individuals, in our farming districts, pass many years 
without, in a single instance, plunging or washing their entire bodies in 
water, and notwithstanding attain to an advanced age. 

Dr. Livingstone, in a communication read before the British Scientific 
Association, mentions that, in African explorations he found a tribe who 
live in villages ; are industrious, cultivate and manufacture cotton, work 
in iron, and produce fruits, grains, and esculent roots. They have a 
healthy climate, judging from the number of white-headed men, appar- 
ently very old. They are averse to ablutions, or to bathing in any form. 
"An old man said he remembered washing himself once, when a boy — 
never repeated it — and from his appearance, the truth of his statement 
could hardly be doubted. The castor oil with which they lubricate them- 
selves, and the dirt, serve as additional clothing. 

BATHS OF DIFFERENT KINDS. 

The sponge-bath is one of the least troublesome varieties, occupying 
less time than any other. The apparatus is simple, viz. a basin of water, 
a sponge, a towel, and a mat, or bit of carpet, to stand upon. With the 
sponge, the body and limbs are moistened with water, and then rubbed 
dry with the towel. The water may be tepid or cold, according to the 
preference of the bather. In cold weather, when it is an object to excite 
a free re-action upon the skin, a hair mitten or a flesh-brush may be used 
after the towel. 

The plunge-bath and the shower-bath may be warm or cold. Bathing 
should not be resorted to while the stomach is occupied in the process of 
digestion. Eleven o'clock in the forenoon is a good hour for the tonic 
effect of the warm bath, or of the cool or cold bath, in hot weather, if the 
person has eaten nothing since six or seven o'clock. 

For the shower-bath, the head should be protected by an oiled silk 
cap, unless the hair be so short as to be easily wiped dry. In the natural 
drying of much hair upon the head, too much heat is abstracted from the 
brain. 

Almost every one knows that bathing is not healthful unless speedily 
followed by a sense of warmth upon the surface ; or a feeling of exhilara- 
tion, rather than languor or depression. 

The public baths of Imperial Rome were among her most magnift- 



314 PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 

cent specimens of architecture. Relics are still visible of those of Titus, 
Diocletian, and Caracalla. Those of Caracalla were furnished with six- 
teen hundred seats of marble, upon which three thousand persons could 
be seated at the same time. " Those of Diocletian surpassed all the 
others in size and sumptuousness of decoration." The public baths, in 
all the cities of Rome, frequented by all classes, ultimately became 
schools of idleness, effeminacy, and licentiousness, and had no small share 
in unnerving the power which had conquered the world. 

Poppoea, the wife of Nero, had at her control five hundred she-asses, 
in whose milk she was wont to bathe, for the benefit, as she supposed, of 
her complexion. 

REPAIRING PHYSICAL WASTE. 

Physical exercise, systematically and judiciously taken, is the great- 
est harmonizer of the bodily functions. Muscular action induces destruc- 
tion of tissue ; should it go on without intermission of rest, and resupply 
of nutrient material to make good the loss, exhaustion would be the con- 
sequence. The loss of tissue creates a demand for nutrient elements, 
which is made known by the sensation called a appetite. " Under this 
action and reaction, loss and supply, the integrity of the muscular and 
nervous tissue is maintained. The bones, too, brought into action by the 
muscles, receiving their quota of stimulation during exercise, grow, and 
develop into proper proportions. 

When exercise is partial, or local, the parts thus brought into activity 
grow out of proportion to the surrounding parts ; thus the blacksmith 
exhibits a powerful and sinewy arm ; the dancer a powerful and well 
developed leg. Exercise, therefore, when general, serves to develop in 
adequate proportions the various parts of the body, and, when partial, to 
strengthen those requiring better development. 

Exercise quickens the circulation of the blood ; the lungs, respond- 
ing to the rapid flow, require a greater quantity of air for oxygenation ; 
hence respiration is quickened to obtain the supply. The blood thus 
becomes purified in the lungs, and returns more rapidly to the tissues 
with new material for nutrition. The carbonic acid is thus quickly 
exchanged for the vitalizing principle, oxygen, that stimulates and gives 
vigor to the body. The pulse responds to this general tone, and conse- 
quently beats firmer and with a more even rhythm. 

The union of oxygen with the carbon of the blood evolves heat. 



PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 315 

When the circulation is rapid, the carbonized blood reaches the lungs 
quicker, requiring a greater amount of air for oxidation ; hence respira- 
tion is increased, and a greater evolution of heat is the result. Exercise, 
then, performs the triple function of assisting in the elimination of effete 
matter, of conveying more nourishment to the exhausted tissues, and of 
generating heat. 

Long-continued exercise, uninterrupted by periodical and adequate 
rest, would cause exhaustion, as is evinced by the sensation of fatigue. 
This sensation is the warning that the time has come when a supply of 
nutritive materials should go to replace the waste of tissue already 
incurred. To secure a perfect distribution of the nutrient elements, rest 
is necessary; consequently exercise immediately after taking food is 
hurtful, as activity destroys so much of the nervous force needed for a 
proper performance of digestion. Those who do not conform to these 
demands become dyspeptics, from non-assimilation of food. 

EFFECTS OF EXCESSIVE FATIGUE. 

Excessive fatigue indicates a great loss of tissue, and is dangerous, 
because the system, under its general prostration, would not manifest its 
wants ; and, while it may require food, it may not induce the sensation of 
hunger suggestive of such necessity, and therefore go un supplied at a 
critical moment. And, again, if much food is taken when the stomach is 
weak from continued fatigue and want of nourishment, it may remain 
unacted on, and unassimilated, and become a source of irritation instead 
of force. 

Persons leading a sedentary life, or a life of little activity, as shop- 
keepers, who would eat out of proportion to the wear and tear of their 
bodies, accumulate fat, become obese and lethargic. Hard-working men, 
on the other hand (and particularly students, who use up an immense 
quantity of nervous matter), unless properly and adequately supplied bv 
rest and nourishment, would become very lean, and be the victims of 
nueralgic and pulmonary complaints. 

Exercise, to be beneficial, should be proportionate to the strength, 
and have relation to the habits and occupation of the individual. Purely 
physical labor induces stupidity, and lethargy of the intellectual faculties. 
Purely mental labor reduces the volume of the body, and causes a debil- 
ity that renders one prone to receive impressions from the slightest irri- 
tating casualty. 



316 PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 

Society, intent upon refining girls by close application to study, 
neglects that fundamental principle of health consisting of the proper 
equilibrium between mind and body. 

What is proper exercise for girls ? Such a question, on a subject 
apparently so simple, need occasion no surprise; because custom, habit 
and fashion have so misdirected young women in this regard that they 
scarcely would understand now what healthy exercise means. In society, 
as constituted, girls have but limited opportunities for it. 

A daily walk should be enjoined upon all girls, from infancy upwards, 
without paying too much regard to slight inclemency of weather. If 
civilization has done anything, it has certainly invented appliances for 
the protection from cold, from rain, from wind, and from the sun. The 
walk should be a pleasurable one if possible, and of sufficient length to 
induce moderate fatigue. 

BEST AND MOST NATURAL EXERCISE. 

Walking is the first and most natural mode of exercise. The act of 
walking brings into play all the muscles of the body, and even the 
internal viscera partake of the general movement from the shock 
incurred every time the foot touches the ground. The circulation and 
the respiration are accelerated in proportion to the exertion undergone. 
The senses are not passive, for every object attracts the eye and causes a 
thought. 

The changes of situation — as the being in the shade, under the sun, 
facing the breeze, quickening the step in the cold, slackening it in the 
heat, exchanging salutations with friends, or analyzing objects of curi. 
osity — give an exercise of the organs of intellect as well as of the body 
which secures moral and physical equilibrium. It is therefore good for 
the sound in health, for the convalescent, and for the valitudinarian. 

It is said that a systematic walker never dies of consumption. How- 
ever true this may be, certain it is that those who form and carry out the 
resolution to take a daily walk generally enjoy good health. 

Riding on horseback is one of the most enjoyable and salutary 
exercises known. This mode of motion is peculiar and ever-changing, 
and not dependent on the will. To maintain equilibrium, the rider must 
conform to the gait and the motion of the horse, which depend on the 
condition of the ground and on its own speed. Under this exercise the 
circulation and respiration are greatly increased and digestion assisted ; 



PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 317 

the mind is pleasantly engaged, emotions excited, and emulation inspired. 
Young people like to ride well — some desire to exhibit prowess and 
skill. In many diseases riding is found to be more efficacious than the 
most renowned therapeutic agents. 

Riding, in increasing the tone of the muscular fibers, in promoting 
digestion and assimilation, corrects morbid sensibilities, and is therefore 
of great benefit in hysteria, hypochondria, chronic nueralgia, palpitation 
from dyspepsia, etc. 

Dancing is probably the most welcome, and certainly a most useful 
exercise for girls, though the difficulty is in getting it under proper 
conditions. It is a system of motions, composed, as an author has said, 
of running, walking, and jumping. It has been practiced from ancient 
times, although of late it has undergone serious modification. The dance 
of the ancients was an inspiration, that had but little form or rhythm. 
Civilization, more exacting in propriety, as society understands it, has 
checked the impulsive and ingenuous motions of the " inspired '' dancer, 
to reduce it to an even, regular motion, that is fatiguing and tedious from 
its continued sameness. 

INJURIES CAUSED BY WALTZING. 

Waltzing has been introduced, which, in its rhythmical turnings, 
can only weary the limbs, send blood to the head, cause dizziness and 
sickness of the stomach ; it deprives the lungs of air, causing oppres- 
sion from want of breath. Quadrilles, now almost entirely proscribed 
from the salon of fashion, are really a most excellent practice of gymnas- 
tics, particularly for girls of lymphatic temperament. 

Dancing requires plenty of fresh and pure air to satisfy the greater 
circulation of blood in the lungs. The inspiring of a great quantity of air, 
surcharged with carbonic acid emitted from either burning gas or candles, 
and from the lungs of a multitude of persons present in a close room, is 
exceedingly dangerous. The motions occasioned by the various dances 
require that the muscles, and particularly those of the thorax, be free from 
the stricture of tight dressing. 

Dancing contributes to physical education and development. It is a 
corrective of that sedentary life which keeps the lower extremities inactive ; 
it is a pleasurable exercise, favoring sociability, and stimulating the desire 
for suppleness and grace; but care should be taken that the enjoy- 
ment of this mode of exercise be had only where the air is pure, and not 



318 PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEAI/TH. 

over-heated; when the dancers may be properly dressed, without 
compression, or exposure to sudden changes of temperature; and in 
company and at hours which are wholesome both to the morale and the 
physique. 

On this score, Michael Levi says : " The moral and physical 
influence of dancing is a therapeutical resource that promotes menstruation 
when late, or corrects many of its irregularities. On the other hand, 
when too often repeated, or carried to excess, it may excite the organs of 
circulation, so susceptible in a young girl, and cause reactions which are 
distinguished by debility, pallor, and languor." 

ADVANTAGES OP ROWING. 

Rowing, for a specific purpose, namely, the development of a narrow 
chest, is one that cannot be surpassed. Under the alternate and continued 
extension and contraction of the muscles of the arms and of the chest, 
the ribs are kept in active motion, favoring, through this elasticity, 
expansion of the lungs. The circulation and respiration are greatly 
accelerated, thus adding to the exercise of those organs. The pleasurable 
excitement is conducive to a happy state of the mind. The air on the 
surface of the water is pure and invigorating. The motion of the body 
is graceful, and under these vitalizing agencies, girls of delicate respiratory 
or digestive organs will improve in health and strength, and acquire forms 
that are attractive in woman. 

Billiards, so little practiced by woman, is one that stands pre-eminent 
among all games for healthful exercise. The constant change of attitude, 
the moderate force required, and the pleasure it inspires, fit it as the 
woman's game par excellence. Croquet, tennis, tossing ball, battledore, 
are games, which, being played in the open air, and moderate in their 
requirement of force, are also conducive to the health of girls. 

Driving is a passive exercise which is healthful on account of the 
change of air experienced in the distance passed over. Driving to the 
country is far preferable to driving in the confined air of a city. The 
motion of the carriage communicates some motion to the body, which, 
although limited, exercises the muscles and the articular surfaces. It is 
a pleasurable mode of exercise, and a great relief from continued and 
confining occupation. 

Sea going is generally healthful. The sea air, the novelty of the 
situation, and, often, sea-sickness, prove salutary. Many invalids have 



PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 319 

found health at sea. The air is invigorating ; it contains ozone, and the 
emanations of sea-salts. Sea-sickness deters persons from going to sea ; 
but, really, it is seldom that it affects one in a distressing manner. The 
great majority of sea-going people feel the inconvenience for two or three 
days ; after this they begin to feel better, and finally become perfectly 
well, enjoying an excellent appetite. 

The rest of the journey is passed without illness, and the general 
health is greatly improved. When nausea is present, the smells of the 
ship, which come from the stagnant water in the bilge, or from the oil 
used on the machinery, greatly aggravate the case and add to the discom- 
fort. It is therefore well that persons apprehensive of sea-sickness should 
engage berths well ventilated and distant from the engines. 

Many are the hygienic expedients recommended to avert sea-sickness ; 
but their comparative failure is only further proof of the general fact that 
things beneficial or curative to one are not so to another. 

DIRECTIONS FOR DOCTORING SEA-SICKNESS. 

Some adopt the system of lying down as soon as they go on board, 
and remain quietly in their berths for several days, until they feel no 
longer that terrible sickness. Others will remain constantly on deck in 
the open air. Both these methods are good, but the choice must be made 
from the experience of every individual ; for that which will suit one may 
not suit another. 

Passengers should go on board in good condition, at least so far as 
the biliary organs are concerned. The intestines should have been previ- 
ously unloaded, even by a discreet purging. On board, for the three or 
four first days, food should be taken often, but in small quantities. Cham- 
pagne, brandy, lemon juice, or pounded ice often relieves inclination to 
nausea, and even an intense attack of it. 

Persons easily affected by the ship's motion should secure a position 
as near the centre of it as possible, as there motion is least. Keeping the 
perpendicular by swinging the body in the opposite direction to the motion 
of the boat lessens its bad effect. Sea traveling often cures chronic diar- 
rhoea of long standing, invigorates the biliary apparatus, and relieves 
biliousness. Hepatic, renal colics and dysentery are also often cured. 
It is said that choleraic patients do well at sea. 

Singing is also a mode of exercise about which little has been said 
regarding its effect upon the health of girls. A great hygienist, however, 



320 PROMOTING AND PRESERVING HEALTH. 

speaks as follows : " At the age when the system has not attained suffi- 
cient development, the exercise of singing is not without accident. In the 
natural state, respiration is divided in two equal actions, viz.: that of inspi- 
ration and that of expiration. In singing, the alternation is not regular 
or uniform ; the inspiration by which the voice is sustained is held for a 
long time ; the blood, unable to enter the contracted lungs, dilates the 
cavities of the heart, the larger veins and the capillaries ; it is then that 
the veins of the neck swell and the face becomes red. It is thought 
that this suspension of a regular breathing tends to induce diseases of 
the heart and of the lungs, at least in delicate girls. Many girls who are 
preparing for professional singing, have to abandon it on account of pulmo- 
nary hemorrhages." 

It is therefore necessary to use proper judgment in this regard, and 
not force the practice of this art upon girls whose organization cannot 
bear the effort without suffering. Singing is an attractive accomplish- 
ment ; but the health and life of a girl are of greater importance, and she 
should not be led into the practice unless her physical development 
warrants it. 

Girls whose efforts to reach a high note are such as to make the 
bystanders tremble for fear of accident, should not sing. "A beautiful 
voice adds new charms to beauty, but the study of an art of pleasure 
should not be one of pain and danger." 

It is principally for girls who attend school that exercise of divers 
kinds is imperative. Mental work and bodily inertia lead to nervous 
exhaustion and deformity. Gymnastics, adapted to their physical condi- 
tion, should be practiced during the hours of rest. The importance of 
this fact is so generally known now, that all well-conducted schools are 
supplied with proper gymnastic apparatus. 

Exercise secures good digestion, maintains a good circulation, a 
proper temperature, and gives vigor to the body ; it is therefore one of the 
greatest protectors a young woman can have. 




Female Clothing. 




ASSESSES, 




CHAPTER XXVI. 



N 



ATURE, so bountiful in every provision for 
the protection of life has scarcely ever 
demonstrated greater wisdom than in the 
selection of coverings for animals that 
inhabit regions of the earth of different tempera- 
tures. Man, however, who is not limited to either 
space or latitude, she has left naked, but endowed 
him with an intellect capable of selecting such 
covering as season or locality may require. By 
^JKJT** this means he is enabled to migrate from one part 

|| of the world to another, exposing himself to violent 

lj atmospheric changes without danger. Food and respiration, 
although great contributors to the maintenance of bodily heat, 
would not suffice in the glacial regions, where the loss of 
caloric is above what nourishment and oxygen can provide. 

Had man been provided by nature with a permanent covering, it is 
easy to conceive that he could not pass from an arctic to an antartic 
region without exposing himself to such sudden shocks to his constitution 
as would imperil his life. It is true that the natural covering of animals 
undergoes necessary modifications in conformity with the changes of 
seasons, and often of climate ; but never so far as to enable the white bear 
of the glaciers to live comfortably at the tropics. 

Some animals, however, migratory by nature, select the climate best 
adapted to their nature ; but those are they which are endowed with great 
swiftness of locomotion, as certain birds, with the power to fly a thousand 
miles without rest in a comparatively short time ; moreover, this is 
possible only to those whose food is easily obtained from the air, from 
the earth, or from the water. 

The habits of man, and all his necessities for existence, are such as to 
localize him. He cultivates the earth that it may yield him food, and 
in such quantity as will provide for him against the uncertain future ; 
21 321 



322 FEMALE CLOTHING. 

lie stays by his stores, and therefore does not feel compelled to leave the 
place of his birth in search of supplies. 

Every surface radiates heat, and man, to prevent such radiation 
as would lower the temperature of his body below the standard consist- 
ent with the preservation of its existence, envelops it in clothing. The 
amount of radiation of caloric from the body depends also upon the condi- 
tion and the temperature of the air immediately surrounding it ; and as 
these conditions are many, in the different parts of the globe, and change- 
able even in the same locality, according to seasons, it follows that the 
materials for clothing must vary in their power of retaining or radiating 
heat. Man has, therefore, taken from the animal kingdom, skins, furs> 
feathers, silk, wool, etc. ; and from the vegetable, cotton, linen, jute, etc. ; 
their adaptability for dress depending upon their power of conducting or 
retaining heat. 

All articles of dress are more or less bad conductors of heat, and are 
interposed between the external air and the surface of the body as mediums 
to adjust, at all times and under all circumstances, the proper propor- 
tion of radiation and absorption of heat compatible with the integrity of 

the body. 

HEAT RADIATES FROM THE BODY. 

The very limited stratum of air which, however, is left to fill the 
place between the clothing and the skin, and also within the interstices 
of the material itself, is warmed by the radiation from the body and 
remains so, protected by the outer clothing, maintaining thus next to 
the skin a medium the temperature of which is neither too high nor too 
low ; for the same power that the material has to prevent the quick 
transmission of heat from the body to the outer air it has to prevent the 
transmission of heat from the atmosphere to the body, 

The radiating or absorbing power of the material depends upon its 
color, its quality, texture and shape. Black absorbs, white reflects, caloric 
rays. Ice exposed to the rays of the sun will melt quicker under a black 
than under a white cloth. 

Heat-conducting power is very feeble in wool, silk, fur, feathers, 
and all materials, in fact, derived from the animal kingdom ; hence 
they are used in the winter season, and in northern latitudes. The 
intelligent and economical housekeeper surrounds her ice with flannel to 
prevent its melting rapidly, just as she envelops her babe in blankets to 
keep it warm, wool being a bad conductor of heat. Linen, flax, and 



FEMALE CLOTHING. 323 

cotton, and all clothing material from the vegetable kingdom, are better 
conductors of heat, and are therefore useful in the summer season, and 
in regions where the temperature is generally elevated. 

The various materials for dress have also electrical relations ; silk, 
wool, fur, and feathers possessing in a high degree the power, not only 
of developing but of retaining electricity ; while flax, linen, and cotton 
are good conductors, and diffuse electricity. It is on account of the 
above-stated facts that rheumatism, neuralgia, and all nervous diseases 
that are benefitted by the electric current, are ameliorated by wearing 
silk, wool, or fur, while they are aggravated by linen or cotton. 

The shape of clothing has also to do with the maintenance or loss 
of heat of the body. A cover drawn tightly around the limbs, not 
permitting a stratum of air to be interposed between the cloth and the 
skin, would necessarily be cooler than a looser garment that would allow 
some air in the space between, for air is a bad conductor, and the clothing 
serves as a shield from the outer air that would otherwise absorb the heat 
from the enclosed stratum. 

HOW PLANTS ARE PROTECTED. 

The intelligent gardener, without much knowledge of science, 
protects his tender plants from the frost on the same principle, namely, 
by spreading a cover over them, which stops radiation, the natural cooling 
process. 

The Roman flowing robe for women and the toga for men were 
probably the most physiological vestments for that climate, leaving the 
limbs free to act, and yet preventing radiation sufficiently to keep the 
body comfortably warm. In latitudes where the thermometer falls 
below zero, such open dressing would allow too much exchange of air, 
and the stratum above mentioned could not retain the degree of heat 
necessary to health and comfort. In spite of fashion, however, intelligent 
communities have, upon experience, settled on a width of garment which 
is best adapted to the atmospheric conditions as well as to the different 
occupations in life. 

The only article of woman's clothing which attracts the attention of 
the physiologist, on account of the objectionable tightness, is the corset. 
This article of dress is of comparative^ modern invention, having been 
introduced by Catharine of Medici. Bouvier, who has given attention to the 
modes of dressing the chests of women at various periods, says : 



324 FEMALE CLOTHING. 

" Anciently the women wore chest-bands. In the first century of the 

French monarchy, and during the greater part of the Middle Ages, they 

vacillated between the Roman band and the new invention, " the body to 

the dress," that is, the robe cut in two, the upper, called the " body," 

fitting closely around the chest, while the lower part is left as a flowing 

skirt, a dress that prevails to this day. 

" Towards the end of the Middle Ages the latter had prevailed. After 

the sixteenth century, corsets, stiffened with whale-bones, were introduced, 

which, modified to some extent, have continued to the present day." So 

much has been said about this article that it would seem but a work of 

supererogation to say more ; yet it is a subject of such great importance 

that even with the danger of running into repetition, it will be here again 

noticed. 

A SUPERFLUOUS ARTICLE OF DRESS. 

While it may be said that it is a support to the breasts, that it affords 
comfort to the wearer, it may be answered that a simple band, appropriately 
applied, would do as much ; that all women do not need such a support, 
and that it is in this very instance where it is most injurious. 

The corset, as adopted in modern times, is a stiff, unwieldy instru- 
ment, covering tightly a large and most important part of the body. It 
is kept in place by its own pressure, which is exerted over the muscles of 
the chest, over the cavity of the stomach and of the abdomen, thus 
reducing their natural capacity. When pressing upon the bosom, it 
prevents its development, and sinks the nipple into its substance, rendering 
the process of nursing almost impossible ; pressing upon the chest it 
prevents a full expansion of the lungs by its fixed limits, and by paralyzing 
the muscles ; pressing on the abdomen, it retards the circulation of the 
blood so important to the organs contained therein, it reduces the cavity 
and forces the intestines downwards, the latter pressing the womb, which 
eventually becomes the victim of displacements ; pressing upon the 
stomach, it reduces its capacity and its power of muscular motion, 
necessary to the process of digestion. 

That article of dress therefore may, when used only for the purpose 
of vanity, be the source of dyspepsia, consumption, prolapsus and ulcer- 
ation of the womb, leucorrhcea, constipation, and hemorrhoids, so common 
among the most fashionable class of women. 

As to the relations of color of dress, it is, for our purposes, chiefly a 
matter of heat. A cook wishing to heat water rapidly places it in a black 



FEMALE CLOTHING. 325 

caldron over the fire, or wishing to keep it warm for a long time after its 
removal from the fire, places it in a shining white pot. 

Experience has taught that ; but the explanation is that black is a 
conductor of heat and that therefore when the heat is external it will pass 
more readily through a black caldron, and would as easily pass outwardly 
should the same black caldron be used to retain the fluid after the fire is 
withdrawn. White being a conductor of much less power would not heat 
the water so rapidly when exposed to the fire, but would retain the heat 
longer when the surrounding air is cooler than the water. 

Dr. Stark, who has made experiments upon the heating power of 
color, has come to the conclusion that black stands first, blue second, red 
third, green fourth, yellow fifth, and white last. 

Count Rumford and Sir Edward Home recommended that black be 
preferred in hot climates, in the shade (and, we suppose, when the external 
temperature, however warm, is below that of the body, namely, ninety- 
eight Fahrenheit) because the heat would more quickly radiate from the 
body. That is even said to be the reason why the negro is able to live in 
a hot atmosphere ; for, although under the sun he would absorb more heat 
than the white man, in the shade he would also radiate more, and thus 
bring about the wonted compensation. 

PREFERENCE FOR BLACK IN DRESS. 

The same authorities declare that colors differ in power of absorbing 
moisture, and that, in that connection, they follow the rule of their heat- 
conducting power, and therefore suggest that in miasmatic localities, and 
particularly after the sun has passed below the horizon, persons should 
wear clothing of light color in preference, and they even blame the 
physician, a person more exposed to contagion and infection than any 
other, for his preference for black in his articles of dress. 

The Clothing of Special Parts. — Head. — The head should be 
kept cool, particularly iu children, as heat predisposes that organ to 
congestion. The adult need wear but what will protect from the rays of 
the sun and from the rain. Non-conductors, as felt, silk, wool or furs, are 
generally injurious. The loss of hair so common among men is from 
wearing around the head materials that retain both heat and moisture. 
In the countries where women wear but a veil upon the head, as in Italy, 
Corsica, and the East, the hair grows ltixuriantlv and does not tall. False 
hair and other appliances, used to give a fictitious volume, injure the 



326 FEMALE CLOTHING. 

growth of the natural hair on account of the weight they impose and the 
heat and moisture they retain. 

The Neck. — The blood circulation of the neck is not only great but 
superficial, the carotid arteries and the jugular veins being near the 
surface. Pressure around the neck, therefore, would be highly injurious, 
as it would prevent the flux and reflux of blood to and from the brain. 
The use of furs around the neck, except in extremely cold climates, is 
mischievous, by inducing perspiration to which the air has easy access, 
cooling it rapidly, and thereby producing catarrhal diseases and sore 
throat. 

The Trunk. — This part of the body, containing so many noble 
organs, requires the most intelligent treatment in the way of dress. In 
climates where the changes of temperature are sudden, flannel is the 
material that should surround it, for it retains heat and prevents a too 
quick evaporation. In climates of a more even and moderate tempera- 
ture, cotton or linen may be worn with comfort, provided the person 
wearing the same be not exposed to drafts of air even on a hot day. 

APPAREL MADE OF FLANNEL. 

The condition of persons should be taken into consideration at all 
times ; for delicate persons of lymphatic temperament, evolving but little 
heat, or persons subject to catarrhs, bronchitis, pneumonia, rheumatism, 
and neuralgia, should wear flannel at all times, although its thickness 
may be changed in accordance with the temperature of the atmosphere. 
The partial exposure of the chest, so customary among women of all 
ages, is extremely dangerous, from the radiation of the natural heat of 
that part and the quick evaporation of its moisture — a cooling process 
which predisposes to congestion. 

Extremities. — An old adage says, il Keep your head cool and your 
feet warm." Thick soles are great protectors to the feet ; leather, being 
but a feeble conductor, keeps them cool when placed upon a warm soil, 
and warm when upon a cool one. The paper soles formerly so much used 
by fashionable women are injurious. Their thinness and elasticity cause 
the feet to yield to every unevenness of the grouud, rendering walking so 
tiresome and painful as not to be prolonged without discomfort. Fortu- 
nately, Fashion has grown sensible, and now prescribes substantial soles 
for women to walk on. 

Tight shoes punish the wearer with both corns and bunions, and 



FEMALE CLOTHING. 



327 



therefore need but little discussion on our part; fashion and vanity have 
done much to injure the feet of our women. A good shoe is a shoe that 
fits, it is neither too large nor too small ; a large shoe injures by friction. 
High heels change the centre of gravity of the body, throw the knees 
and pelvis forward, and the upper trunk backward to maintain equilib- 
rium, thus predisposing to dangerous curvatures of the spine. 

Now, in the shaping of a boot or shoe, it will, I presume, be allowed 
that the boot or shoe ought to be made to fit the foot, and not the foot a 
boot which has an arbitrary outline decided by the fashion of the time. 
It happens that the ordinary shoe has little or no relation to the natural 
outline of the sole. The fash- 
ionable boot terminates in 
front in a more or less pro- 
nounced point, and the part 
occupied by the toes is usually 
its very narrowest part. The 
ordinary shoe is made on the 
principle of bilateral sym- 
metry, and apparently on the 
assumption that each foot is 
divided into two perfectly- 
symmetrical parts. As one 
writer on the subject well 
observes, the fashionable shoe 
is made of a certain shape, " as if the human foot had a great toe in the 
middle and a little toe at each side, like the foot of a goose. " 

Why this particular shape should be admired it is difficult to say. 
There is nothing unsightly in the perfect human foot, and it is hard to 
understand why a boot that more or less completely reproduces the normal 
outline of the member should be considered as repulsive. The active 
spreading toes of a child's foot are certainly more to be admired than are 
the crushed and distorted toes of the shoe wearer ; and the perfectly- 
shaped feet made familiar by good statuary have surely an outline that is 
in itself more agreeable than is the rigid and wedge-like outline of the 
fashionable shoe. 

If well developed feet are placed side by side and heel to heel, the 
two great toes will be found to be parallel to one another, and to touch 
one another almost to their very ends. If the same feet, clad in the shoes 






Natural Foot. 



ii. Foot with outline of boot. C. Foot 
distorted by boot. 



328 FEMALE CLOTHING. 

of the period, are placed in the same position, it will be fonnd that, while 
the heels are in contact, the inner borders of the two soles diverge, and 
that the tops of the two great toes will be separated by a considerable 
interval. 

Now, for the proper performance of the functions of the foot, it is 
essential that all its movements should be unrestricted, that the toes 
should have free play, and that the great toe — which is so indispensable 
to the act of progression — should have a free range of motion, and main- 
tain its parallelism to the long axis of the foot. What effects, however, 
do ordinary shoes have upon the feet ? The toes become crushed together, 
and are often made to overlap one another ; the great toe is no longer in a 
line with the axis of the foot, but is pushed outwards towards the middle 
line of the sole. The joints between the many bones are rendered rigid ; 
the muscles, being unable to act, waste ; the ligaments shrink, and the 
foot becomes a deformed, rigid and inert block. 

PRECEPTS CONCERNING DRESSING. 

That consummate hygienist, Hufeland, laid down certain precepts 
about dressing that we gladly quote here : 

a Dress should not prevent the evaporation of the body, and not be 
so heavy as to fatigue. Furs should be discarded, because they retain too 
much heat, excite perspiration, and prevent evaporation. In this case the 
deleterious matter given out by the skin is retained on the surface of the 
body, becomes absorbed and injurious to the organism. For this reason 
too warm clothing is injurious to feeble constitutions, and to persons 
subject to rheumatism. Young people in good health should adopt light 
vestments in preference to very heavy and warm ones. Exercise is the 
best producer of heat for young people and assists evaporation. Fat, pork, 
cheese, candies, are creators of heat, causing no evaporation, and there- 
fore should be avoided, particularly during warm seasons. 

" Persons who have passed the meridian of life, when animal heat 
and evaporation are on the decrease, should wear garments of wool ; and 
those of a lymphatic temperament, inclined to fat and indolence, those 
leading a sedentary life, and those subject to catarrh, mucous discharges, 
diarrhoea, dysentery and gout, should be particular in observing this rule. 

" Wool is also beneficial to persons subject to congestions, vertigo, 
neuralgia, ear-ache, rush of blood, cough, pain and oppression of the 
lungs. Wool excites the skin, relieves the blood by evaporation, and is 



FEMALE CLOTHING. 329 

therefore a preventive of consumption, hemorrhoids, and all bloody flux. 
It is useful to those whose nervous power is feeble, to hypochondriacs 
and hysterical persons. It is a protector against cold and heat, dampness 
and wind. 

It is preferable in latitudes where atmospheric changes are sudden 
and frequent. It is not beneficial to persons who perspire easily, or who 
are possessed of much electricity, nor to all those who have great vitality, 
or who are predisposed to cutaneous eruptions. All clothing made of 
wool should be changed often, because it retains the emanations from 
the skin which would become a source of irritation." 

Ed. A. Parkes, military hygienist, also says : " Wool being a bad 
conductor of heat and a great absorber of perspiration, is superior to 
cotton or linen. During perspiration the evaporation from the surface of 
the body is necessary to reduce the heat which is generated by exercise. 
When the exercise is finished the evaporation still goes on, and to such 
an extent as to chill the former. When dry woolen clothing is put on 
after exertion, the vapor from the surface of the body is condensed in the 
wool, and gives out again the large amount of heat which had become 
latent when the water was vaporized. 

PREJUDICE AGAINST WEARING WOOL. 

"Therefore, a woolen covering from this cause alone, at once feels warm 
when used during sweating. In the case of cotton and linen the perspira- 
tion passes through them and evaporates from the external surface with- 
out condensation, the radiation of heat then continues. These facts 
explain why dry woolen clothes are so useful after exertion. " 

During convalescence, from debility and lack of red globules in 
the blood, persons are very susceptible to cold ; hence, flannel should be 
worn by them, particularly when the debility is a consequence of rheu- 
matism, intestinal inflammation and pulmonary diseases. 

There exists a prejudice against wearing wool in the summer season ; 
but that is due to the ignorance of the fact that the danger to health is 
from a too rapid evaporation of the fluid emanating from the skin. The 
laborer in hot countries always wears his flannel, knowing that otherwise 
he would be easily chilled. To demonstrate the cooling- process ol 
evaporation one has only to come out of a bath and remain undried tor a 
few minutes ; unless the air surrounding the body is of a very high tem- 
perature and moist, the person will become chilled in a very few seconds. 



330 FEMALE CLOTHING. 

Governments have now discarded linen in the clothing of soldiers ; 
and in Italy, in July and August, the soldier wears his woolen uniform, 
and at night, when exposed to malaria, while on duty, a white woolen 
cloak. 

The cowl does not make the friar. This truism, we are almost inclined 
to say, is not true ; if not in its literal sense, at least in its philosophical 
acception. Dress is more often an outer expression of self than that 
saying would imply. There is disguise in everything ; but we think the 
disguise is the exception, not the rule. If persons acting in a disorderly 
manner should be suddenly arrested by a person in the garb of a police- 
man, and receive from the latter the order to follow him to the nearest 
police-station, nine out of ten would follow without questioning his 
authority. 

If, in time of war, persons going on a certain route to a common 
destination should suddenly be halted by a man in the recognized uniform 
of a soldier and ordered to return, nine out of ten would return without 
asking for his commission. A needy person, out at elbows, unwashed 
and uncombed, found on one's premises, is at once looked upon as an 
intruder, or suspected as a robber, and probably thrust out unceremoni- 
ously. But if the person is neatly and comely dressed, the inquiry 
might be made of him in a polite manner, *' What do you wish, sir ?" 

The thief that wants to pick the pocket of a gentleman dresses him- 
self in the conventional garb of a gentleman. It is true that in his case 
the dress does not make the gentleman ; but his experience has taught 
him that in the majority of cases it does, and therefore he trusts that his 
exception will not be detected. 

Clothes are emblematic. A neat, well-dressed person is generally a 
person of order ; slovenly in his dress, he is most likely to be slovenly 
in his habits and in his thoughts. 

A philosopher says : "All visible things are emblems ; what thou 
seest is not there on its own account ; strictly taken, is not there at all. 
Matter exists only spiritually and to represent some idea and body it 
forth. Hence clothes, despicable as we think them, are so unspeakably 
important. The soldier even in citizen's dress bespeaks the soldier, for 
his coat is trim to his body and his breeches must fit his well-turned legs. 
The farmer, even in soldier's dress, is the farmer still ; for buttons 
trouble him, and his easy going is interfered with by the close-fitting 
uniform ; he lets it bag, and looks the sloven farmer." 




Physical Culture 
for Women. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

HYSICAL culture has fortunately passed the 
feverish stage, and most thinking women, after 
a good deal of unnecessary experimental work, 
have settled down to a system which, persistently 
followed, will accomplish the desired ends. There has been a great 
deal of unnecessary time and effort expended in various schools of so- 
called training without good results. We have had all sorts of appli- 
ances and machines proposed as necessary for the development physically 
of every man, woman and child in the universe, 

Innumerable systems requiring more or less elaborate apparatus have 
been placed where we could not get away from them, or at least from 
diagrams or pictures of them, and I assume that almost every woman 
reader of this page has passed through a phase in the physical culture 
movement during which she has felt that life without a punching bag, a 
lift, or a medicine ball would be a dreary waste. Machinery has a weird 
fascination, and I myself, who should know better, have succumbed to the 
snare of pulleys, mechanical rowing apparatus, and what not. I have 
pulled at weights, and punched at balls, waved clubs and brandished 
dumbbells. I know the charm of ropes and bars, bags and clubs. 

But truth is eternal and cannot be, as the boys and girls ot to-day 
say, "side-tracked," and the truth is that no specially designed contriv- 
ances are necessary for the physical development of any subject. 

Thinking women who know something of anatomy and a little of 
physiology are satisfied that to attain and maintain health and beauty 
nothing can take the place of the daily exercise which brings all the 
muscles of the body into play, expands the lungs, and sends the bl< 
tingling through the veins. These women know that by a certain amount 
of physical development, which is dependent, of course, upon ex 
they may regain or retain the supple grace of youth, 



332 PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 

They know that by exercise alone they can prevent the development 
of hnge abdomens and hips and will never join the army of distorted 
creatures, who, suffering from the results of over-eating and ignorance in 
the care of the body, are classified as the women with the " middle-aged 
figures." Also they know that while appliances are useful and to some 
persons lend a special interest to exercises, they are actually unnecessary 
for muscular development. 

The women with the middle-aged figures are our misguided sisters 
who, as one says, "will insist upon sitting upon the ends of their spines." 
These are the women also who have forgotten or who have never learned 
how to stand or walk. I might truthfully add also that rarely does a 
woman with the middle-aged figure know how to breathe correctly. 

I want you to consider the importance, the truly wonderful import- 
ance, of correct breathing, not only upon the appearance and health, but 
upon the actual happiness of every woman. I am a crank on this one 
point, but am not without eminent supporters. Every system of physical 
culture, whether it includes appliances, or is devoted to free hand exercises, 
to-day insists upon the correct breathing of the subject. 

THE SCIENCE OF BREATHING. 

Particular attention is now paid to the physical development of 
women, especially to the science of breathing. To breathe aright will 
remedy pulmonary complaints as effectually as sleeping in I he open air. 
I am not alone in this opinion. I am glad to quote from so famous 
an authority as Mr. Checkley on this particular point. 

" When we stop for a moment," says Mr. Checkley, " to consider the 
tremendous importance of the lungs, it must become apparent that any 
neglect of these great central boilers of the body is the worst kind of 
neglect. The office of the lungs is of the very highest importance. This 
importance is incidentally acknowledged by many writers and teachers. 
But the development of the lungs is left to take care of itself, it being 
assumed as a general thing that all exercises tend sufficiently to expand 
the lungs. 

a To be sure, great stress is occasionally laid upon the expansion of 
the chest. But the assumption too frequently appears to be that this 
expansion is a matter of external muscular development. This theory is 
on a par with the general superficiality of the average system of training. 

"The strength of special parts in a steam engine and even of bands 






PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 333 

upon the boiler will not prevent weakness and possibly an explosion, if 
the material of the boiler itself is without strength. Hard layers of 
muscles on the chest do not improve the permanent strength of the lungs. 

a It should be clear that the enlarging and strengthening of the lungs 
can be satisfactorily accomplished only by the exercise and special training 
of those organs themselves. In other words, beginning on the inside. 
This truth lies at the very bottom of natural physical training. 

" To learn to breathe is to learn the A, B, C of physical health, and 
it is of special importance that this education of the lungs should precede 
the education of the outer muscular system. For the natural increase of 
lung strength and chest room is retarded by methods that begin on the 
outside first." 

EXERCISES FOR ARMS AND SHOULDERS. 

I want in this chapter particularly to speak of the defective way in 
which so many women carry their bodies, and to suggest a very humble 
system of exercises for developing and strengthening the arms and 
shoulders, and thus aiding the subject to carry her body properly. I 
suppose it should be perfectly natural for us to have a perfect carriage, 
but the fact is that the woman who holds herself correctly, who sits and 
stands as she should, is very rarely seen. There has been a great deal of 
well merited abuse of the corsets and of our French heels, and I have no 
doubt that one and the other are to a degree accountable for the defective 
carriage and sitting posture of many women. 

But if we go into a school-room in any large city unexpectedly we 
shall find that nine out of every ten children are sitting improperly or 
carrying their bodies as they should not, and that these children have 
never worn corsets or heels to their shoes. It does not seem natural to 
us at this time of the world to stand or walk or sit correctly. 

If a picture were to be taken, a snap-shot, for instance, of twenty- 
five women and children, walking on aii}^ one of the principal 
thoroughfares, it is safe to say that twenty of them, at the very least, 
would be out of drawing, or rather out of harmony. And that twenty 
out of the twenty-five would be dependent upon the bony structure of 
their bodies and not on their muscles for keeping the body upright. 
Properly speaking, the muscles of our bodies should hold us in position. 
It is the muscles that should hold the trunk upright and keep the proper 
relation between the spine and the pelvis. 



334 PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 

Unfortunately most of us force the bony structure to perform this 
task. The exercises illustrated in this chapter are especially of value 
for strengthening and developing the arms, shoulders and chest. They 
form a system complete in itself for the straightening out and strength- 
ening of the weak back and bent shouldered girl or woman. 

It takes time and practice with many to get to a place in physical 
culture where one realizes that free-hand exercises, that is to say, exer- 
cises without any apparatus or appliances whatever, result in just as 
much benefit as those which require machinery or apparatus. 

The exercises here described can be performed with any object held 
in the hands. A pair of dumbells or Indian clubs would do. But a 
chair, the simplest kind of a kitchen or dining-room chair, will give the 
subject precisely the same results. The great point in view is to get 
exercise for the muscles which require developing. 

So long as you do not over-train, it really makes little difference how 
you get the exercise. The best way to take these exercises is lying flat 
on a couch or bench, but they may be taken standing, using the chair as 
one would a club. The chair should not be heavy. It is not weight, but 
something to grasp, which you require. 

HOW TO TRAIN THE MUSCLES. 

Illustration No. i. Grasp the chair and raise it until it is directly 
over your breast. Then turn it to the right until it reaches the floor, at 
the right side of your head. Raise it again until directly over the chest, 
then turn to the left, until it reaches the floor on the left side. Inhale a 
deep breath and hold it during one or two of these movements.. Expel 
the breath gradually and slowly. When you inhale a deep breath the 
chest should expand fully. 

Illustration No. 2. Grasp the chair and keep the elbows straight. 
Stretch the chair without bending the elbows, as far to the right as pos- 
sible and then as far to the left . Repeat. 

This is an excellent exercise for the shoulder muscles and for the 
muscles just back of the shoulders. 

Illustration No. ?. Seize the chair and keep the arms rigid. Raise 
the chair up as high as possible and then as far back over the head and 
forward as you can. Continue until the muscles of the arms are slightly 
tired. 

It may be well to say here that no physical culture exercise should 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 335 

ever be continued after the subject begins to feel really exhausted. The 
effects of exercise after fatigue has really taken place are frequently 
disastrous and far reaching. 

Illustration No. 4. Seize the chair and raise it high up over the 
chest and bring it down again. This exercise is for strengthening the 
back and developing the upper arms. Continue it until you are con- 
scious of fatigue. Then stop at once. 

Illustration No. 5. Seize the chair and raise it without bending the 
elbows and bring it directly over the chest. Now make a half circle 
with the chair, bring it as far down on the right side of the head, and 
then over as far down on the left side as possible. This exercise will 
develop the intercostal muscles. 

THE FAMOUS SWEDISH MOVEMENTS. 

The exercises which are very well known as the Ling Exercises of 
Swedish Movements are excellent as a beginning of physical culture for 
those persons who are content to practice without an apparatus. These 
exercises are especially good for women who are inclined to be stout. 
They are performed in the following order : 

First — Describe a circular movement with each arm twenty times 
in succession. Extend the arms forward, outward and upward, thirty 
times in succession, taking eight or ten deep inspirations between each 
series. 

Second — Execute a circular movement from the waist, swaying the 
upper part of the body slowly round, the hands resting upon the hips. 
Make this movement thirty times. 

Third — Extend the leg as nearly at right angles with the body as 
possible. Repeat twelve times on each side, taking eight or ten deep 
inspirations between each series. 

Fourth — Extend and bend the foot twenty times each side. Perform 
the gesture of reaping or sowing thirty times. Bend each knee rapidly 
twenty times. Take eight or ten inspirations. 

I'ijth — Raise the arms swiftly and rapidly as in the action of throw- 
ing a lance twelve times in succession. Throw out both arms simultane- 
ously twenty or thirty times. Take eight or ten deep inspirations. 

Sixth — Trot on one spot, the hands on the hips and lifting the 
briskly, a hundred or three hundred times. Take eight or ten deep 
inspirations. 



336 PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 

Seventh — Jump with the hands on the hips, holding the head and 
body erect, fifty or one hundred times. Take eight or ten inspirations. 

Dr. Shreber says that these movements, if executed with order, 
should occupy a good half hour, but my experience has proven that if 
they are performed without haste and with intervals necessary for the 
deep inspirations and repose, they require nearer an hour's time. 

Physical culture exercise in order to be effective must be performed 
with all the vigor and heartiness which can be put into them. If they 
are not executed with a will and good nature they are useless. Every 
gesture must be ample and resolute, well defined and separated by a 
distinct pause from the preceding and following movements. 

The exercises must not be pushed, as I have before said, to the limit 
of the performer's strength, and all distress, pain or exhaustion must be 
avoided. It is impossible to take physical culture exercises with any 
benefit and take them languidly — don't try it. 

HOW TO BEGIN AND PROGRESS. 

For weakly women or those suffering from temporary and periodic 
indisposition, the movements must be modified. Do not forget that in 
order to get real benefit, physical culture should be begun in moderation 
and only increased as the strength and development of the performer 
easily warrants. 

Physical culture movements are practically useless unless the room 
chosen for the exercise is cool, and supplied with quantities of fresh air, 
and better results will be obtained from a room unencumbered with 
furniture, and if possible, uncarpeted. 

The time chosen for these exercises should be before breakfast or 
during the forenoon, preceding by an hour at least the second meal of 
the day. The dress should be light, entirely without restricting bands. 
Tight, heavy skirts should never be worn, and the shoe should be high, 
comfortable and without heels. 

A great many women find it extremely fatiguing to walk up and 
down stairs. One constantly hears women complain of back-ache and 
great exhaustion incident to walking up and down several flights of stairs. 
This is all wrong, for if a women knows how, walking up and down 
stairs is rather exhilarating than otherwise, and not a bit more fatiguing 
than walking on the level. 

To mount stairs properly there should be no waddling from side to 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 337 

side; none whatever. No trudging or pounding as though the object 
were to push holes in the steps. No leaning forward and no dragging, 
weary climbing. The body should remain erect, the steps should be 
taken with the toe and the movement to the next step made with a 
springing motion. A caress of the structure, if you will, instead of a 
kick. This produces a gradually graceful, poetic elevation, instead of a 
cumbersome hauling of the body upward. 

To increase the pleasure of walking and to lessen the exertion we 
must as in every other physical act know how to breathe properly, because 
if the lungs are well inflated an added buoyancy is imparted to the body. 
Not one person in ten breathes correctly, and according to recent estimate 
not one woman in one hundred breathes normally. The respiration, 
varying with every change of mental state or physical condition, grief, 
depression, exhilaration, fatigue, all have their influence in lowering or 
increasing the amount of oxygen that goes into the system. 

FLEXIBLE ACTION NECESSARY. 

The best exercises for standing, sitting and walking are conceded to 
be those arranged and described by Genevieve Stebbins. They are 
admitted to be founded on sound common sense. Miss Stebbins calls 
the standing exercises energizing exercises for the purpose of direct- 
ing will force according to the laws of equilibrium and gradual 
development. 

" Flexible action," says this author, " in lines of changing curve, is 
what distinguishes the beautiful from the merely strong. Nature in 
development is first angular, then circular, and finally spiral. In the 
human form, when poised on both feet, the spiral line is seen. For the 
head has a convexed curve, the body a concave curve, and the legs a 
convexed curve. That is, looking at the main outline and not going into 
details. 

" To preserve this spiral line of changing curves, when we shift the 
weight, we should incline the head to the side of the strong leg, the 
torso (trunk of the body) inclining away from that leg. 

" When the arms are inactive, the following rules should be observed : 
Bend the head toward the strong leg. Bend the torso away from the 
strong leg. 

" By the strong leg is meant the one bearing the weight of the body. 
Stand with weight principally on the balls ot the feet. In all the stand- 
22 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 

ing exercises, carefully observe the rules of opposition curves. Incline 
the head to the side of the strong leg. The torso from it. As the arc 
in which the head swings is much smaller than that of the torso, or of 
the leg, the inclination of the head should be proportionately less. The 
muscles of the thorax and of the back should hold the abdomen up, while 
the abdominal muscles hold it in. 

There should be no slouching at the hips. In walking, the subject 
should stand erect, feet together, abdomen in, chest up, and shoulders 
firm. Advance the thigh, let the leg from the knee down hang lifeless. 
Straighten the leg and plant the ball of the foot on the floor in advance, 
with the toes turned out. When the weight is on the advanced foot, 
bring the backward foot in advance, and thus proceed, observing the rule 
of opposition in the carriage of the entire body. Carry the head erect, 
with the chin drawn well in. 

HOW TO SIT GRACEFULLY. 

" To sit gracefully, do not drop into a chair as if your bones had 
suddenly given way. But separate the feet — not sideways. Place one 
foot near the chair, so that the leg touches, or nearly touches it, and the 
other foot in advance. Incline the body forward from the waist. Bend 
the knee of the leg nearest the chair at the same time, so as to keep your 
balance while you sink gracefully to a correct sitting position. 

" Recollect that it is quite as incorrect to sit on the edge of the chair, 
as though you feared an explosion were imminent, as it is to loll, as 
though you never intended to make the effort necessary to leave the chair." 

The interest that all persons should feel in the Physical Training of 
Women will be greatly increased by the following home exercise, in which 
a number of young girls can engage. One of the number should be 
selected to call out the different orders and lead the exercise. It is a sort 
of military drill that may be performed with brooms, and the physical 
benefits to be derived from it are very evident. 

It should be practiced until it can be performed promptly and without 
any mistakes. Any even number of girls may take part in it. 

One great advantage of these exercises is that they are fascinating to 
young persons, and they enter into them with as great relish as they 
would into any form of play, so that they never regard them as a weari- 
some task, or something from which they would gladly escape. 

During the marching there should be music, and the notes of the 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 



339 



piano should be struck sharply. "Any good march will answer for the 
music. The following exercises conform very nearly to the " Manual of 
Arms v used in the army. The illustrations will be found very serviceable 
in showing the different positions. 

Standing in rank, the leader gives the command to " present arms," 
" carry arms," " trail arms," etc. Each command consists of two' words : 
the first is to indicate what the girls are to do, and on the second word the 
movement is made, all acting in concert. The following exercises are 
suitable, and always prove beneficial. 







Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 



Carry — Arms! — The broom is held in the right hand, handle 
upward, with the hand clasping the handle where it joins the brush. The 
left hand hangs at the side. (Fig. i.) 

Present — Arms ! — Place the broom with the right hand in front ot the 
centre of the body, clasping the handle with the left hand above the right. 
Hold the broom perfectly perpendicular. (Fig. 2.) 

Order — Arms! — Let go the handle with the left hand, and carry the 
broom to the side with the right hand ; then drop the broom to the floor. 

(Fig- 3-) 

In place — Rest! — Grasp the handle with both hands, the left above 
the right, and place both hands in front of the lower part of the 
(Fig. 4-) 

Trail — Arms ! — Grasp the handle with the right hand and incline it 
forward, the broom behind, resting on the floor. (Fig. 5») 



340 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 



Attention — Charge ! — Half face to the right, carrying the heel six 
inches to the rear and three inches to the right of the left, turning the 
toes of both feet slightly inward ; at the same time drop the stick into 
the left hand, elbow against the body, point of stick at the height of the 
chin, right hand grasping the stick just above the brush and supporting it 
firmly against the right hip. (Fig. 6.) 

Port — Arms ! — Raise and throw the broom diagonally across the 
body ; grasp it smartly with both hands, the right, palm down at the base 
of the stick ; the left, palm up, thumb clasping stick ; handle sloping to 




Fig. 5. 



Fig. 6. 



Fig. 7. 



Fig. 8. 



the left arid crossing opposite the middle of left shoulder ; right forearm 
horizontal ; forearms and handle near the body. (Fig. 7.) 

Secure — Arms ! — Advance the broom slightly with the right hand, 
turn the handle to the front with the left hand. At the same time change 
the position of the right hand, placing it further up the handle, drop the 
handle to the front, placing the broom where joined with the handle, 
under the right arm. (Fig. 8.) 

Reverse — Arms ! — Lift the broom vertically with the right hand, 
clasp the stick with the left hand ; then, with the right hand, grasp the 
handle near the brush. Reverse the broom, the handle dropping to the 
front, the broom passing between the breast and right forearm. Press the 
handle under the arm with the left hand until the right elbow can hold it 
in place against the body ; pass left hand behind the back and clasp the 
stick. (Fig. 9.) 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 



841 



Inspection — Arms ! — This is executed from the " carry arms " posi- 
tion. Lift the broom quickly with the right hand, bringing it in front of 
the centre of the body ; then grasp the handle with the left hand, placed 
near the chin, and hold it. (Fig. 10.) 

MOVEMENTS OF ATTACK AND DEFENSE. 

These can be executed only with open ranks, the pupils being placed 
seven or eight feet apart. To so place them, the teacher will give the 
order — 

Right (or Left) open Ranks — March ! — The pupils face to the right 





Fig. 9. 



Fig. 10. 



Fig. 11. 



or left, according to the order given, except the one at the extreme end of 
the line. The others march, the last of the file halting at every four or 
five steps from the one in the rear, until all are the same distance apart. 
They then face front. To close the rank, turn to the right or left and 
march toward the pupil standing at the end until halted by the one 
ahead. Then face front. 

Attention — Guard ! — At the command guard, half face to the right, 
carry back and place the right foot about twice its length to the rear and 
nearly the same distance to the right, the feet at little less than a right 
angle, the right toe pointing squarely to the right, both knees bent 
slightly, weight of the body held equally on both legs ; at the same time 
throw the end of the stick to the front, at the height of the chin, grasping 



342 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 



it lightly with both hands, the right just above the brush, the left a few 
inches higher ; the right hand in line with the left hip and both arms 
held free from the body and without constraint. (Fig. n.) 

Being at the Guard — Advance ! — Move the left foot quickly forward, 
twice its length ; follow with the right foot the same distance. 

RETIRE ! — Move the right foot quickly to the rear, twice its length ; 
follow with the left foot the same distance. 

Front — Pass ! — Advance the right foot quickly, fifteen inches in front 






Fig. 12. 



Fig. 13. 



Fig. 14. 



of the left, keeping right toe squarely to the right ; advance the left foot 
to its relative position in front. 

Rear — Pass ! — Carry the left foot quickly fifteen inches to the rear 
of the right ; place the right foot in its relative position in rear, keeping 
the right toe squarely to the right. 

Right — Volt ! — Face to the right, turning on the ball of the left 
foot, at the same time carry the right foot quickly to its position in rear. 

Left — Volt ! — Face to the left, turning on the ball of the left foot, 
at the same time carry the right foot quickly to its position in rear. 

Right rear and left rear volts are similarly executed, facing about on 
the ball of the left foot. 

Quarte — Parry! — Hold the broom in front of the left shoulder 
with the right hand, handle upward, the fingers of the left hand on the 
handle, the left elbow touching the right wrist. (Fig. 12.) 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 



343 



Seconde — Parry ! — Move the point of the broom-handle quickly to 
the left, describing a semi-circle from left to right, the left elbow in front 
of the body, the flat of the broom under the right forearm, the right elbow 
two or three inches higher than the right shoulder. (Fig. 13.) 

Prime. — Parry. — Carry the broom to the left, covering the left 
shoulder, the handle downward, the left forearm behind the handle, the 
right arm in front and above the eyes. (Fig. 14.) 




Fig. 15. 



Fig. 16. 



Fig. 17. 



THRUSTS. 
To Thrust in TiERCE. — Straighten the right leg, extend both arms, 
keeping point of handle at height of the breast, broom at right side of 
head. (Fig. 15.) 

Thrust in Quarte. — The same as tierce, but with the broom on 
the left side of the head. 

EUNGES. 

The lunges are the same as the thrusts, except that the left foot is 
extended farther in front. Fig. 16.) 

Broom to Front — One! — Raise handle nearly straight up and down, 
drop it into the hollow of the right shoulder. — Two ! — Strike quickly by 
pushing the broom forward, the handle always resting on the right 
shoulder. (Fig. 16.) 

Right Short — Thrust ! — One ! — Hold the broom with the right hand 
to the rear, left hand by the right breast, the point oi the handle opposite 
the centre of the body. — Two! — Thrust forward. (Fig. 17.) 



344 



PHYSICAL CULTURE FOR WOMEN. 



High Prime.— Parry!— Raise the broom with both bands in front 
of and higher than the head. Hold the handle firmly with the right 
hand, the broom being to the right ; turn the knuckles of the left hand 
to the front, and let other end of broom-handle rest on the thumb and 
forefinger. (Fig. 18.) 

To Guard when Kneeling.— Bring the toe of the left foot square 





Fig. 18. Fig. 19. 

in front, plant the right foot to the rear, kneel on the right knee, bending 
the left, hold the broom at an angle of 45 degrees, pointing directly to 
the front, the right hand pressed firmly against the side, the left hand 
holding the point of handle upward. (Fig. 19.) 

The girls can march and keep step with one another. 

These exercises can be practiced singly by women while employed in 
their housework. The broom, which so many persons dislike, can be 
made to promote health and physical development, and thus render a 
higher service than merely keeping the floor clean. 



HOME GYMNASTICS 
FOR WOMEN. 




■ft. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

ERY many women do their own housework. 
While they find in this sufficient exercise, it is 
not always the kind of exercise that is needed. 
Women who have no household employment 
are even more in need of physical exercise 
which will strengthen the muscles and tone up 
the vital organs, thus promoting health and 
vigor. Special care should be given to the 
lungs, and exercises for strengthening them 
should be constantly practiced. 

Now, I do not claim that correct (by which 
I mean deep) breathing will cure consumption in every 
case. But deep breathing means filling the lungs with 
oxygen, and this increased activity must steadily invigorate 
and strengthen the starved, cramped organs. Consump- 
tively inclined subjects are rarely erect — usually they stoop 
and have hollow stomachs and abdomens. Deep breathing persistently 
practiced will not only straighten out the contracted chest, but it will 
cause the subject to stand, sit and walk with the bod}- erect, and will 
expand in a short time the chest, the lower ribs and lower part of the 
lungs and the waist and abdomen. 

Just as soon as the subject learns to breathe with the lower as well as 
the upper part of the lungs and learns how to habitually hold the air in 
the chest as long as she comfortably can, she will notice a more vigorous 
circulation and will experience a sense of exhilaration and well being 
quite new. The hands and feet will soon be of normal temperature and 
the work of repair has begun. 

Consumption is destruction ; deep breathing is reconstruction. It is 
worth every one's trying, and I am more than repaid for my persistency 

345 



846 HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN. 

in calling my readers' attention to this free-to-all panacea for so many ills 
by the letters I receive from converts to the cult of the breath of life. 

One of our eminent Professors of Physical Culture, who has made a 
study of the subject, gives some good lung exercises. They are so simple 
that any one can understand them, and while the system does not vary 
from the one I usually suggest, it seems to me the language used in 
describing these exercises is especially direct, and I therefore repeat them. 

Lung development is the most important end to be obtained by 
physical culture. Weak lungs and imperfect digestion are inseparably 
associated, for to secure perfect nutrition food has to be thoroughly 
oxygenized, thus passing through a state of chemical combustion. The 
oxygen inhaled, uniting with the carbon of the food, produces this 
combustion. Hence the necessity for an ample supply of oxygen. Test 
your lungs by inhaling a full breath, innate the lungs to their full 
capacity, and if it makes you dizzy you are in no danger. 

WALKING IN THE OPEN AIR. 

i. When in the open air walk erect, head up, chin drawn in, shoulders 
thrown back, thoroughly inflate the lungs, and retain the air for a second 
or two, then expel it gently. Practice this several times a day, and if 
your employment keeps you in, make time and go out. 

2. The first thing in the morning and the last thing at night when 
you have nothing on but your underclothing, stand with your back against 
the wall and fill the lungs to their utmost capacity ; then, retaining the 
breath, gently tap the chest all over with the open hands. Do this regu- 
larly every morning and night, gently at first, but gradually increasing 
the length of time for holding the breath and the force of the blows as 
the lungs grow stronger. 

3. Stand upright, heels touching, toes turned out; place the hands 
on the hips, the fingers resting on the diaphragm, the thumbs in the soft 
part of the back. Now inflate the lungs and force the air down into the 
lower back part of the lungs, forcing out the thumbs. Do this half a 
dozen times at first, gradually increasing the number. Women seldom 
use this part of the lungs — tight dresses and corsets prevent them. 

4. While in the same position fill the upper part of the lungs full, 
then force the air down into the lower part and back again by alternately 
contracting the upper and lower muscles of the chest. Do this repeatedly, 
for it is a good lung developer, and an excellent exercise for the liver. 



HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN. 847 

5. Stand erect, arms hanging by the side, then slowly raise the arms 
until they are high above the head, at the same time gradually taking in 
a full breath until the lungs are completely filled ; then gradually lower 
the arms, at the same time slowly expelling the breath. After doing this 
a few times (while the lungs are full) raise and lower the arms several 
times quickly. 

6. Place the hands on the hips, the fingers resting on the diaphragm, 
the thumbs in the soft part of the back ; then keeping the lower limbs 
rigid, bend forward from the waist line, expelling the breath at the same 
time quickly, then straighten up, inhaling slowly, then perform the same 
movement backwards. Repeat this five or six times, then, holding the 
breath with the lungs full, backwards and forwards a few times. 

EASY TO LEARN HOW TO BREATHE. 

It is, of course, true that one may learn to breathe correctly without 
what we call physical culture, though deep breathing is physical culture 
of itself. But what I mean to say is that one does not need to practice 
with dumb-bells or hoops to learn how to breathe, whereas one must 
learn to take long breaths by the practice of almost any gymnastic 
exercises. 

Not long ago I received a letter from a very well-known Philadel- 
phia woman, who for personal reasons did not wish the communication 
printed. She wrote that when she came across my explanation of the 
art of correct breathing she read the instructions aloud to her mother 
and brother. They all made great sport of the notion that, having 
reached the age of maturity and over, it was now suggested the}' had 
none of them ever learned how to breathe. 

Just for fun they began the attempt to breathe according to direc- 
tions. The girl pretended to be the instructor, and the mother and 
brother were the pupils, who did not know how to breathe. Before the 
first " lesson " was concluded the boy said : ;i Do you know I believe 
there is really something in it." 

They kept the breathing exercises up, and afterward the young' la 
wrote me. " We are made over by learning how to breathe. We began it 
as a joke, but we are now three full-fledged cranks after your own plan. 
I have increased my bust measure five inches, and my general health has 
improved wonderfully My mother has breathed her chronic headaches 
away, and my brother, who had weak lungs, has developed as much as I 



348 HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN. 

have, and never coughs at all, though he had coughed more or less for 
years." Another letter from a reader is from a man who was a pronounced 
consumptive. His doom was fixed by physicians. He practiced deep 
breathing, and he is now a well man. He says : ci Was it to be expected, 
or has a miracle been performed in my case ?" 

The most beautiful actresses, both in this country and Europe, are 
devotees to scientific breathing. The great Bernhardt declares that the 
practice of deep breathing systematically so many years is the secret not 
only of her superb health, but of the maintenance in its purest integrity 
of her wonderfully beautiful voice. 

The room chosen for gymnastic exercises should be airy, unencum- 
bered with furniture, and, if possible, uncarpeted. The dress worn must 
be light, entirely without ligatures, tight, heavy skirting or impeding 
weights, and the feet should be shod with light, heelless boots or shoes. 
The time chosen for the exercise should be before breakfast or during the 
forenoon, preceded by about an hour the second meal of the day. These 
movements are all good, and for all subjects who have control over the 
muscles. The vibratory exercises are very beneficial. 

EXERCISES REQUIRING VIBRATION. 

The vibratory exercises are as follows : 

Exercise No. i — Stretch the hands above the head as far as possible? 
clench the thumb of the right hand between the thumb and first finger 
of the left hand. Now bend the body forward at the waist and stretch 
the hands as far as possible. The muscles must be held tense in the 
meantime ; continue to bend until the hands touch the floor. This is 
difficult at first, and the beginner by the most strenuous efforts rarely 
succeeds for many days in touching the carpet or floor, but practice soon 
makes this a comparatively easy feat. Keep the thumbs clenched during 
the entire movement. 

Exercise No. 2 — Hands in same position as the first exercise. Bend 
the body backward as far as possible, keeping the thumbs always tightly 
clenched. Breathe rapidly, always through the nostrils ; remain in back- 
ward position a few seconds. Resume first position slowly. 

Exercise No. j — With the arms outstretched at either side, bend the 
body at the waist very slowly until one hand points upward and the other 
downward. Remain in this position for a few seconds, breathing deeply 
through the nostrils, and then go to the other extreme of the movement. 



HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN. 349 

Exercise No. 4 — Stretch the hands out as far as possible, feet 
together, same position as No. 1, in exercise No. 3 ; twist the body and 
turn round as far as you can without moving the feet. Do this exercise 
slowly. Remain in position a few seconds ; then twist the body to the 
other extreme. Breathe deeply through the nostrils. 

Exercise No. 5 — Place the hands on the hips. Stretch the body 
forward as far as possible, and then cause the body to vibrate rapidly back 
and forth. This will be found a difficult exercise, and requires consider- 
able practice, but is very effective. It should be done only a few seconds 
at a time. This exercise will take the fat off the abdomen and the back. 

Exercise No. 6 — Stand in the same position as in No. 5, hands on 
the hips. Vibrate the body rapidly from side to side. Obesity patients 
need exercise no longer than four minutes a day. If the muscles are 
exercised longer they become weak, and the patient grows fatter as soon 
as the exercises are left off. 

ANOTHER SYSTEM OF PHYSICAL CULTURE. 

While I dwell particularly upon this new system for reducing fat, 
chiefly because it is so very difficult for a very fat person to take violent 
exercise, it is only just to add that its originator believes it the only 
physical culture system suitable for all persons, fat or thin, plethoric or 
anaemic. 

Exercises advised, other than those especially described, are as 
follows : 

To develop the muscles of the upper part of the bod}' and to increase 
the bust and expand the chest, point the hands downward, extend as far 
as possible the muscles held tense ; vibrating the hands and arms, raise 
them as slowly as possible as high as one can reach above the head. The 
more slowly this movement is performed the greater the benefit derived. 

Air must be taken into the lungs in unison with the movement, so 
that by the time the hands are above the head the lungs will be filled. 
The difference between this movement and ordinary nasal breathing is 
wonderful. 

For development of the chest muscles and those of the shoulders 
place the hands on the hips, contract the muscles and vibrate them for 
one minute. 

For muscles of the lower part of the trunk, hold the body muscles 
rigid and vibrate from side to side. As a corrective against corpulence 



350 HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN 

and for reducing the size of the waist this exercise is stated to be far 
superior and quicker in its results than any other. This is the exercise 
before referred to ; it is advised for slight women also. One lady was 
directed to perform the exercise twice a day for two minutes at a time, 
and in one month she had reduced the size of her waist four inches. 

For the muscles of the neck and upper part of the shoulders, hold 
the neck muscles rigid and vibrate for one minute ; rest for a minute and 
then vibrate the head sideways. 

To develop the muscles of the arms, clench the fists tightly and 
bring them together across the chest, about as high as the top button on 
one's coat, tense the muscles hard and vibrate the hands, wrists and arms 
strenuously for a minute. 

Extend the arms straight in front, palms upward on a level with the 
chin ; tense the muscles hard and vibrate the hands, arms, shoulders and 
upper part of the body for one minute ; one minute's rest, and then repeat 
with the palms held downward. 

HOW TO STRENGTHEN THE LOWER LIMBS. 

For strengthening the legs and thighs, grasp a chair and lift one foot 
from the ground, bending the leg at an easy angle ; tense the muscles 
hard and vibrate vigorously for a minute. 

Don't forget that in order to get the greatest amount of good from 
your breathing and physical culture movements, the body should receive 
at least one scrubbing and bath every day, to remove all effete matter and 
keep the pores of the skin thoroughly open. 

Professor Blaikie thinks that almost any woman under forty, even 
though she has been cursed with a thin, narrow chest, half-used lungs, 
and scrawny arms and legs, may in a few months, by systematic graded 
exercise, largely remedy this want of development, and he justly contends 
that careful employment of wooden dumb-bells weighing two pounds each, 
or of clubs of three pounds, or of pulley weights of ten or fifteen pounds, 
is not half so dangerous to the organism as a sudden run to catch a boat 
or train, taken by one who is out of the way of running, or who perhaps 
has never learned. 

Professor Blaikie gives as a further illustration of the almost miracu- 
lous effect of exercise in obviating the tendency to consumption, the 
case of Dr. G., of Boston — who, as shown by a photograph of himself, 
taken several years previously, had his shoulders warped forward, his 



HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN. 351 

chest flat, almost hollow, and his face and general appearance suggesting 
a delicate man. He said, indeed, that he was strongly inclined to be 
consumptive. By practicing breathing, however — not on an ordinary 
" blowing machine," where the lungs are emptied of all that there is in 
them, but on an " inspirometer,'' from which, instead, one inhales every 
inch of air possible, and also by practicing vigorous working of his 
diaphragm — he had so expanded his lungs that he could inhale 380 cubic 
inches at one breath. -Certainly, the depth of his chest at this later period 
was something remarkable, being apparently about fourteen inches through 
from sternum to spine, and a surprisingly broad chest as well. 

But the most astonishing feature in Dr. G.'s case was the tremendous 
power of his voice. He said that at the end of half an hour's public 
singing with opera singers, whilst they were hot and perspiring, he was 
just warming up and getting ready for his work. One thing all who 
ever heard him sing would quickly concede : namely, that seldom had 
they anywhere listened to such an immense voice. He also claimed to 
have run two blocks in a single breath. His appearance was, as might be 
supposed, as little that of a consumptive as could be imagined. 

A SUPPOSED CONSUMPTIVE LIVED TO BE OVER NINETY. 

After a person of weak lungs has thus built them up above par, and 
attained for them more than average vigor, he must, however, continue 
to exercise and invigorate them by systematic training, lest they relapse 
towards their normally feeble condition. President Day, of Yale College, 
said to have been a consumptive at seventeen, by constant good care of 
his body, lived to be ninety-five, and it is far from uncommon for delicate 
persons, even if inclined to phthisis, who judiciously cultivate the small 
stock of vigor ihey have, to outlive sturdier ones who are prodigal and 
careless of their vital powers. 

A famous example of the practical benefit of light gymnastic exercises 
is that of the venerable poet Bryant, who died at the advanced age of 
eighty-Jour, and wrote when he was seventy-seven : " I rise early in winter, 
about half-past five ; in summer, half an hour or an hour earlier. Imme- 
diately, with very little encumbrance of clothing, I begin a series of exer- 
cises, for the most part designed to expand the chest, and at the same 
time to call into action all the muscles and articulations ot the body. 
These are performed with dumb-bells oi the very lightest kind, covered 
with flannel, with a pole, a horizontal bar, and a light chair swung around 



352 HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN. 

my head. After a full Hour, aud sometimes more, passed in this manner, 
I bathe from head to foot. 

When at my place in the country, I sometimes shorten my exercises 
in the chamber, and, going out, occupy myself for half an hour or more 
in some work which requires brisk movement. Breakfast over, I occupy 
myself with study for a while, and then, when in town, I walk down to 
the office of the " Evening Post," nearly three miles distant, and, after 
about three hours, return, always walking, whatever be the weather or 
the state of the streets. In the country, I am engaged in my literary 
tasks until a feeling of weariness drives me out into the open air, and I 
go upon my farm or into the garden, and prune the fruit trees, or perform 
such other work about them which they need, and then go back to my 
books. I seldom drive out, preferring to walk." 

This plan of the immortal author of " Thanatopsis " may suit a large 
majority, but when one finds her digestion is disturbed by her exertion 
before breakfast, as is often the case, such difficulty can generally be obvi- 
ated by following the French fashion and that of the English athletes — 
that is, taking a roll, or even a soda cracker, with a cup of coffee, perhaps, 
(to stay the stomach, as it is popularly called), before commencing exercise. 

HOW THE BLOOD GETS THE AIR. 

The right side of the heart, which has for its business the pumping 
of the blood through the lungs, that is, through the pulmonary circula- 
tion, as it is called, sends it along through tubes which ultimately divide 
into very delicate blood-vessels, named capillaries, which are spread out 
in a fine net- work of meshes, just like those of a fishing-net, except that 
they are made with hollow pipes, instead of with strings, upon the surface 
of each pulmonary air-vesicle. By this means all the blood is exposed to 
the action of the air in the lungs without anything between the two fluids 
but an exceedingly thin membrane — the substance or wall of the capilla- 
ries — which is very far thinner than the finest paper that ever was made. 

In this highly ingenious manner the blood is placed in the most 
favorable position for being purified and ventilated, so to speak, by losing 
its injurious gases and taking up a new supply of life-giving oxygen. 
Each lung is wrapped up in a sort of double bag, called the pleura, the 
surfaces of which, when they come in contact, are kept moist by their 
own secretion, in such a way that no friction or other interference with 
the proper expansion of the lung occurs. The painful disease called pleur- 



HOME GYMNASTICS FOR WOMEN. 353 

isy, which is an inflammation of the pleura, is generally brought on by 
taking cold, and on this account it is very important to guard onesself 
against being exposed to cold or damp air when thinly clad about the 
chest. 

The heart, which is a thick, strong, muscular bag, pumps the blood 
through the lungs as it goes round and round through the circulation, 
at the rate of about sixteen hundred pints of the vital fluid every hour. 
These sixteen hundred pints of blood, by being spread out in the fine 
network of delicate tubes in the walls of the air-cells, get rid of nearly 
sixty pints of carbonic acid, and absorb rather more than sixty pints of 
oxygen in that length of time. Upon this gaining of fresh oxygen and 
getting rid of stale carbonic acid unceasingly, our very lives depend ; for, 
as demonstrated in hanging and drowning, if this interchange of the 
gases in the blood is interrupted, for even the space of a few minutes, 
death is the effect. 

Whilst life continues, night and day, our hearts must go on pumping 
dark, purple, venous blood into the lungs, to be there purified and changed 
into red arterial blood by losing its carbonic acid and gaining fresh oxy- 
gen, which is carried to every part of our bodies, as has been just 
explained, conveying everywhere its new and vigorous life. Night and 
day, too, quite as unceasingly, must the lungs do their part, by pumping 
in fresh air to furnish this requisite supply of revivifying oxygen : and^ 
what is almost equally important, they must pump out the air which has 
been partly deprived of its oxygen, and has received in its place the worn 
out and now deleterious substances got rid of by venous blood, among 
which the carbonic acid and animal effluvia, such as proved fatal to so 
many of the poor creatures shut up in the Black Hole of Calcutta, are the 
most important and dangerous to human life. 

Accordingly, it is extremely essential that all parts of the lungs 
should be expanded, in order that they may constantly receive supplies of 
fresh air. The best way to do this is to observe the rules laid down in 
this chapter. 



23 




FEMALE BEAUTY. 



CHA.PTER XXIX. 




T 



HE culture of beauty is everywhere a 

legitimate art. But trie beauty and 

adornment of the human form, the 

culture of personal beauty, and, in 

in our age, especially of female beauty, is 

of the first interest and importance. It is 

impossible to separate people from their 

looks. A woman's natural quality is to 

^v attract, and having attracted, to enchain ; 

and how influential she may be for good or 

for evil, the history of every age makes 

clear. We may add, therefore, that the 

culture of beauty is the natural right of 

every woman. 

It is not " wicked " to take pains with 
oneself. In the present day our altered 
system of education, and an improved con- 
ception of woman's capacities, may have a little blinded us. We have 
begun to think of the mind almost to the exclusion of the body. It is, 
perhaps, time to notice that the new views, whilst pointing to one truth, 
are in danger of eclipsing another : not, as some thoughtless people 
believe, that mental culture can ever harm a woman, or do ought but 
confer an added grace, but that the exclusive culture of one good thing 
involves a deplorable loss, whilst two good things do but enhance each 
other's lustre. 

However important the mind may be in fitting woman for her place 
354 



FEMALE BEAUTY. 355 

in the world, either individually or as the companion of man, the body is 
hardly less important ; and, after all, the old-fashioned notion that a 
woman's first duty is to be beautiful, is one that is justified by the utter 
impossibility of stamping it out. 

I should be the last to imply that physical beauty is the only thing 
that can make a woman attractive. Many are attractive and magnetic 
without beauty as it is commonly understood, and some are too useful 
to provoke criticism ; but physical beauty remains one of the sweetest 
and strongest qualities, and one which can scarcely be too highly valued 
or too falsely despised. 

VALUE OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 

The immortal worth of beauty lies in the universal pleasure it gives. 
We all love it instinctively. We all feel, more or less, that beauty (or 
what we think beauty) is a sort of necessity to us, like the elements. 
One of the best proofs of this is the fact that we generally invest with 
ideal beauty any face or thing we are fond of. The beauty of the skies 
and seas soothes and uplifts our hearts ; the beauty of faces passes into 
our souls, and shapes our moods and acts. What we love is probably 
always worth cultivating ; and when we love what after all has an enor- 
mous refining influence, its cultivation may even become a duty. 

The power and sanctity of physical, as well as moral beauty, has 
been recognized in all ages. The early myth of Beauty worshipped and 
respected by beasts of prey is a suggestive and touching instance of this. 
The Greeks considered beauty so essentially a divine boon, that the 
mother prayed to Zeus that her child might be before all things beautiful. 
Beauty seemed to the Greek the visible sign of an inward grace, and an 
expression of divine good-will. 

Thus it naturally came to be cultivated at Athens with an enthusi- 
asm and devotion such as it is difficult for us to realize. It was a part of 
their religion, and the common phrase, the Good and the Beautiful, 
embodied the fact 

It may seem strange that the Greeks, whose civilization had ma 
them so sensitive to beauty of a certain order, should have remaii 
to a great extent untouched by other orders of beauty which we value 
so deepty ; but it is even more singular that we who know all ti 
they knew, and have cultivated a susceptibility to sound, as in mus 
and color, as in painting, far more keen and complex than theirs, 



356 FEMALE BEAUTY. 

should have become so careless of what they held highest — human 
beauty, and surroundings in so far as they affect human beauty. 

The wisest of men has called physical beauty a jewel of gold, the 
value of which is not destroyed, but only checked, by its being occa- 
sionally found in a swine's snout; and though decking it with gold 
will never make a swine other than a swine, it is possible to culti- 
vate the inner and the outer grace together, and it is possible to 
actually open a way for the development of the mental and moral 
good by smoothing the physical veil which encumbers and distorts it. 

In fact, outward ugliness is an impediment in more ways than 
one ; influencing the character in an unmistakable degree (hereafter to 
be shown), and influencing surroundings and the chances of life, far 
more than is generally admitted. 

WONDERFUL INFLUENCE OF WOMEN. 

The part which beauty played in the Middle Ages was a very 
real one. Woman, whose loveliness so swayed men, was at one time 
treated with something like divine honors, mistress as she was of the 
chief civilizing influence of the time. Books being few, and secular educa- 
tion nearly confined to woman, her mere knowledge gave her almost 
unlimited power over her rude, warlike bread-winner. 

Whilst he could only fight in battle, or wring treasure by force from 
the traveller crossing his domain, she could often write or read a letter. 
While he could but teach the young hands to war, and the fingers to fight, 
to manage a fierce horse, or to bring down the quarry, the whole mental 
and moral training of the children and the household were in her hands: 
She could instruct them in the mysteries of their faith, the duties of their 
position, and teach them the hundred arts and occupations which 
engrossed the time of women when shops were not. 

Knowledge is power ; beauty and knowledge combined are well-nigh 
all-powerful ; both belonged to woman, and she was, for good or evil, the 
incentive to action, the prize in the tourney, the leech who cured the sick 
and tended the wounded, the ruler of the servants, and the keeper of the 
castle keys. She it was who, pointing to courage and courtesy as the 
price of her grace, diffused courage and courtesy throughout the land. 
She it was who fixed the tone of morals and excellence in the court in 
which she reigned as queen. And she it is who (though books and educa- 
tion have come her master's way at last) still possesses a vast power for 



FEMALE BEAUTY. 357 

good or ill, a power of which her beauty in the abstract is the pivot and 
corner-stone. 

Darwin makes some very curious remarks on the different standards 
of beauty. 

" Beauty seems to some people to mean a very pronounced form of 
whatever type of feature or hue we are most accustomed to ; in short, the 
exaggeration of characteristic peculiarities. Thus the African savage with 
his black hide, his large thick mouth, small eyes, flat nose, and heavy 
ears, considers that woman most lovely who has the blackest skin, the 
thickest mouth, the least apparent eyes, etc. We Western nations, whose 
characteristics are a small oval face, colored pink and white, large eyes, 
prominent nose, and narrow jaw, think the excess of these characteristics 
to be beauty, and the deviation from them, ugliness." 

STRANGE CUSTOMS OF SAVAGES. 

The African savage considers the American woman hideous, with her 
front teeth unextracted and white, '' like a dog's," her lips untorn by 
either a copper ring or a piece of wood, and her cheeks colored " like a 
potato flower." The American recoils from a Nubian lady, whose 
smile brings her lips on a level with her eyebrows, and draws her nose 
back to her ears. 

There is no doubt a great deal in this theory — much more than we 
can at once realize — that beauty of form > like the colors of the prism, is 
non-existent except in our own eyes and minds. I do not, however, endorse 
it. I believe that there are abstract rules of beauty distinct from the 
charm of the habitual. But however this maybe — for I am not concerned 
with definitions of what constitutes beauty — still on the lowest ground, the 
pleasure excited in the mind by what seems to each to be beauty — even 
supposing it to be a flat nose — is so immense, that it has always been held 
worth living, and fighting, and dying for. 

Is it not then a kind of duty to make life beautiful — to disguise 
deformity, to provide by care and forethought for others, a pleasure which 
costs so little and brings in so much even to the giver, that one is tempt 
at times to fancy vanity itself but the abuse or exaggeration of a natm 
and noble quality — since it seeks, in the pride of beauty, a possession 
which tends to refine and elevate the mind, and increase the sum of 
human happiness in a number of direct and indirect ways. 

Those whose taste has been cultivated by having beautiful thi: 



358 FEMALE BEAUTY. 

always about them, are incredibly sensitive to awkward forms, inappro- 
priate colors, and inharmonious combinations. To such persons, certain 
rooms, certain draperies, certain faces, cause not only the mere feeling of 
disapprobation, but even a kind of physical pain. Sometimes they might 
be unable to explain what affected them so unpleasantly, or how they were 
affected, but they feel an uneasy sense of oppression and discomfort — they 
would fain flee away, and let the simple skies or the moon with her sweet 
stare, soothe them into healthy feeling again. 

This sense of oppression would probably be neither understood nor 
believed in by the ordinary run of educated people, in America, at least. 
But it is very real to those whose passionate care for the beautiful makes 
it a kind of necessity to them — and they are the subtle and delicate souls 
that build up the art-crown of a nation. The uneasiness to which I allude, 
is very similar to what we all feel more or less, according to our constitu- 
tional susceptibility, in the presence of unsympathetic persons. 

WHAT IS NATURAL TO WOMEN. 

No woman can say truthfully that she does not care whether she is 
pretty or not. Every woman does care. The immutable laws of her 
being have made physical attractiveness as much a natural glory to her 
as strength is to a man. 

Here I may be told that what I am saying is superfluous, for perfect 
beauty has no need of art to enhance it, and that those who have been 
born with hard, or worse, with perfectly uninteresting features, do not 
want to be told that physical attractiveness is indispensable to them. But 
it is especially to the plain and to the generally ill-favored that I address 
these words of advice and warning, and should Beauty's self find a few 
useful hints, I see no reason why she should not avail herself of them. 

I know that there are people who look well anywhere or anyhow ; no 
vulgarity, no carelessness of speech, dress, or attitude seems able to 
dethrone them ; but these rarely gifted persons are but the exceptions that 
prove the rule ; and even in their case what Sir Philip Sidney spake is 
true — there is that in well-chosen surroundings 

1 Which doth even beauty beautify, 
And most bewitch the captived eye ;' 

and Herrick, too, in his " Poetry of Dress," seems to have had an astute 
appreciation of how beauty may be beautified. These men lived in the 
sixteenth century — a time when color in dress was still an understood 



FEMALE BEAUTY. 359 

and valued adjunct, and before we had learned to make our dwellings 
intolerable to the eye. 

An immense number of ill-tempered ugly women are ill-tempered 
because they are ugly. They do not know it ; their friends don't under- 
stand, and make no allowances ; but heavy, indeed, is the burden upon 
these poor women, and pernicious is its effect on their moral character 
very often. I have heard it said that ugly women are always bad-tempered ; 
this is an over-statement, but there is a certain degree of truth in the 
saying, cruel as it is. 

An ugly child cares nothing for its ugliness, but when it grows older, 
and perceives that it lacks something which is prized and honored, and 
is twitted with the deficiency, and neglected through it, and is reminded 
of it every time it looks in the glass or in another face, the constant 
disappointment begins very early to embitter the whole nature, and 
creates a melancholy shyness ; and when the desire to attack awakes with 
years, and the young girl finds her fairer friends preferred before her, the 
vain endeavors to please by other means dishearten her, and she grows 
sarcastic, ill-natured, envious of everybody, though half unconsciously ; 
many other faults follow, and she becomes unhappy and morose. 

NO WOMAN NETED BE UGLY. 

But one chief aim I have in writing these reflections is to prove that 
no woman need be ugly if she knows her points, and points of attractive- 
ness every woman has. There is manner, there is mind, as well as 
physique ; but whilst I should advise all women to become as intelligent 
and clever as they can, whether they be plain or pretty, still I wish mere 
beaut}^ and the study of "points" were made more an acknowledged and 
honorable art than it is, by all those to whom God has given eves and an 
intelligent brain. It is not a sin or a folly to long, as ever}' woman longSj 
to be lovely. She is so constituted, and her beauty " is a glory to her." 

After all, what is vanity? If it means only a certain innocent v. 
to look one's best, is it not another name for self-respect — and without 
what would woman be worth ? If it means inordinate self-admiration | \ 
rare among persons with some occupation) it is less wicked than 
We are too timid of names; but it w'ere wise to examine our bi 
before handing them down to posterity. 

The English and American women are considered by all na; 
be among the most beautiful in the world, whilst the French 



360 FEMALE BEAUTY. 

far less gifted by nature, but a Frenchwoman understands bow to bide 
ber defects and enbance ber beauties to a far greater extent tban otbers — 
and tbis, not because ber moral cbaracter is necessarily lower, but simply 
because sbe belongs to an artistic race, cultivating aesthetic tastes — 
wbereby sculpture, and painting, and music, and beauty witbin and with- 
out are regarded, not as distinct trades, but as parts of a duty owed to 
our fellow creatures, and to the best that is in us. 

But after reading the foregoing voluminous advice, my young lady 
friends may still ask the pointed and practical question — " How am / to 
make the best of myself?" I can only offer a few closing suggestions 
and episodes in the hope of applying nry general rules to particular cases- 

Girls may be divided into two classes — the Visible and the Invisible. 
A girl is invisible when for any reason she fails to attract : and to attract 
is the indispensible attribute of woman par se, without which she may 
be, no doubt, a capital individual, lay-figure, buffer, ic brick," or anything 
else good in its way, but not a woman ; just as a magnet that has lost its 
magnetism might be called a good stoue, a weight, a stopper, or what not, 
but hardly a magnet. 

GIRLS EXPECT TO BE MARRIED. 

But Beauty blushing unseen is a waste of* wealth which political 
economy forbids us to sanction. To be beautiful implies to be seen, and 
it follows that one of women's first duties is to be visible. 

Most girls look forward to getting married. They are right. It is a 
woman's instinct. Most mothers bold out marriage as the chief aim of a 
girl's existence. They are right — it is so ; but it is a pity that they do 
not tell them why it is so. 

Marriage from a right point of view -is indeed the " better part." To 
be the companion and help-meet of another soul — to select a life-companion 
whose guidance and sympathy will raise you — to beget and to mould the 
spirit and mind of the new generation — and to fit oneself for these 
supreme duties — what can be a higher and grander choice ? The single 
woman's part in life may be a noble one, she may elevate herself, she may 
help others, but hers must always be the secondary place. She is never 
fulfilling the whole position which nature intended her to fill, however 
fully she may do her part ; but the wife and mother is a crowned queen. 

The Jews, to whom, however persistently we have oppressed them, 
we owe at least our entire religious teaching and scheme of morals. 



FEMALE BEAUTY. 361 

rendered a rare homage to woman married. To her, as Emanuel Deutsch 
pointed out, the Talmud ascribed all the blessings of the household. From 
her emanated everything noble, wise, and true. It had not words enough 
to impress man with the absolute necessity of getting married. Not only 
was he said to be bereaved of peace, joy, comfort, and faith without a wife, 
but he was not even called a man. " Who is best taught?" it is asked : 
and the answer is, " He who has learned first from his mother." 

Again, the Talmud says, " He who sees his wife die before him has, 
as it were, been present at the sanctuary itself — around him the world 
grows dark." The value set by the Jews on family life may indeed be 
founded on the requirements of a social state now passed away ; but the 
last quotation certainly embodies the idea of woman not as a mother only, 
but as the help-meet, the guide, the keeper of the house, which every 
thoughtful woman hopes to be in marriage. 

LITTLE OFFERED IN EXCHANGE FOR MARRIAGE. 

But all cannot marry. It remains to be seen who will. Alas, when 
people complain of men not marrying (even they who are able) , they 
forget how little women offer in exchange for all they get by marriage. 
Girls are so seldom taught to be of any use whatever to a man that I am 
only astonished at the numbers of men who do marry ! Many girls do 
not even try to be agreeable to look at, much less to live with. They 
forget how numerous they are, and the small absolute need men have of 
wives ; but, nevertheless, men do still marry, and w ould oftener marry 
could they find mates — women who are either helpful to them, or amusing . 
or pleasing to their eye. 

Society is like a crowded picture, in which here and there a bi: 
bright color or a gleam of sunlight brings into relief one object or 
another : but the mass is confusion. These brightly colored figures 
the visible ones, and the rest are but a background to throw them up. 
Why don't girls marry ? Because the press is great, and girls are indis- 
tinguishable in the crowd. The distinguishable ones marry — those who 
are beautiful or magnetic in some way, whose characters have some defin- 
ite coloring, and who can make their individuality felt. 1 would have 
said — who can make themselves in any way conspicuous, but that the 
word has been too long associated with an undesirable prominence. Yet, 
after all, prominence is the thing needed, prominence of character or 
individuality. Men, so to speak, pitch upon the girls they can see ; those 



362 FEMALE BEAUTY. 

who are completely negative, colorless, formless, invisible — are left behind. 
I am prepared for a scream from the strong-minded, who are superior 
to marriage, and think that a single life is the higher aspiration for the 
girl of the period, as in it she has more scope for the development of the 
ego. I do not think so ; I agree with the Jews ; but to those otherwise 
minded, I humbly point out, that no one need marry who does not 
choose. A man may lead the girl he loves twenty times to the goal of 
proposal, but he can't make her marry him, so there is no cause for fear. 
But whether a girl marry or not, her possession of energy to strike 
out a new line and fit herself for a worthy and industrious single life, at 
once links her with the Visible ones: for my " Visible " means rather 
perceptible than obtrusive. A woman may be conspicuous by her virtues, 
her talents, her industry — as the violet is by its scent, but nothing 
except want of energy and character can virtually make her invisible. 

HEALTH AND BEAUTY TO BE COVETED- 

Blue-stocking or not, every woman ought to make the best of herself 
inside and out. To be healthy, handsome, and cheerful, is no disadvant- 
age even in a learned professor. It is one of the most potent objections 
to the cause of female education, that clever women go in for huge boots 
and Gampian umbrellas, setting at naught many graces essentially 
womanly and indispensable in woman ; and the fact, which really has 
some truth in it, positively damages the cause. 

Recollect that you have a body, although exceptionally gifted with a 
mind : a little attention to it will neither nip your mental powers nor 
impede you as you clamber up the tree of knowledge. Busy sisters, if 
you climb at all, climb gracefully, rather than bring the tree into disre- 
pute. The apples are worth winning — they are even worth your setting 
a good example to those who crowd the foot ! 

The nonentity is often at first rather pretty. Here is, however, a 
prettiness evanescent in its very essence ; for the face being a reflection 
of the mind, and the mind obeying a universal law and withering under 
disuse, she lacks the life-giving element which lies in the mind. The 
prettiness of mere youth lasts a year or two, during which, if poor, the 
nonentity is idle, and ultimately starves. If rich, she lies in bed late, 
does a little worsted work after breakfast (always in villainous colors), 
varied by scribbling vacant little notes to everybody she thinks likely to 
read them ; and spends the afternoon under a pink parasol in the park. 



FEMALE BEAUTY. 803 

She dines out, and goes to balls — no one quite knows why ; she is 
no great acquisition in looks, and her conversation cannot be the attrac- 
tion, for she has none ! The nonentity would be bored if her partners 
alluded to any subject outside the small round of petty joys which make 
the occupation of her useless life ; and boredom might bring a few months 
too soon the lines in her face which it is her only chance to stave off. 
The nonentity never reads, never thinks, never does anything for any- 
one, and never improves ; had she any sense of her position or any will 
to amend, she would not be a nonentity. 

The nonentity may marry — if she has a fortune ; and in w r edded life 
is utterly unfit to be a wife or mother. Cheated by the servants, by the 
dressmaker, disobeyed by her children, neglected by her husband, it 
never occurs to her to question whether her own uselessness is to blame 
for her solitude. All find their lot complete without her. Winning 
neither love nor hate (there is nothing definite enough in her to awaken 
either), if she steers clear of the many snares that beset social life, it is 
only by chance ; if her children turn out well it is in spite of her ; and, 
at length, the death notices will tell us where and when the nonentity 
took herself out of the way. 

SCANDAL-LOVING OLD MAIDS. 

If the nonentity does not marry, which is likeliest, her case is worse. 
She soon fancies herself ailing, grows querulous ; she fritters away her 
foolish youth, and wanes into that most odious of social thorns, a 
mischievous and scandal-loving old maid. Not what the old maid may 
be, and so often is, the loving and valued friend, the ready comforter, the 
industrious promoter of many a good cause, helper in a hundred ways, 
as only a free and unattached woman can be ; for this is invariably a 
woman of mind and heart, who need not have been an old maid, but who 
chose her lot — one of the visible blessings of life. 

The nonentity finds no real friends, for friendship exists only on the 
basis of a mutual " give and take " of interest or advantage, and I 
no interest in her. 

To the ill-educated girl, I have but one word to say : educate your- 
self — somehow to some extent, whether parental neglect or your own 
indolence be to blame for your fault. The disadvantage of not knov 
the commonest things is felt most in elder girlhood you cannot join 
you can only interrupt a conversation; but books are so cheap, OUI 



364 FEMALE BEAUTY. 

leisure probably so large that there is little to prevent an effort to redeem 
lost time. 

However gaily clad in other people's hair and as many dead birds as 
a savage, the maiden can never be more than a laughing-stock, who 
believes that Alexander the Great conquered Britain, and that Newton 
invented electricity. 

To the Discouraged girl I sound the counsel. Be so no longer! Up! 
up ! Forget the past. Forget the sneers of cousins and sisters. Forget 
the coxcomb who grew tired of you and married, someone else. Forget 
the mistakes you have made — so many are worse than you ! Up ! up ! 
things mayn't be so bad, there are still pleasures in life, there is still work 
to be done, there are still friends to be found ! 

TROUBLES OF THE SHY GIRL. 

The shy girl can do something to help herself. She can force her- 
self to talk. She can constantly bear in mind that a certain amount of 
confidence in her own powers is needful to bring out whatever powers she 
possesses ; nay, that complete withdrawal from the strife of tongues is a 
form of selfishness which often shackles and depresses those about her. 
There is the girl who is shy from believing that she is not u clever 
enough " to talk ; the girl who has " nothing to say " — why, let her read 
the papers and talk about the giant gooseberries rather than be mute J 
even an inveterate habit of blushing may be brought within reasonable 
bounds. 

At whatever cost, come out of your shell. Do not sit dumb ; for this 
oppressive shyness, from being the cage in which your ideas die as they 
try to emerge, will after a time become the unwholesome vacuum pre- 
cluding the very birth of them. Silence which forbids the utterance of 
thought not seldom destroys the capacity for thought. From being a 
very silent girl, you may become a very stupid women ; the vital force 
which once gave you unused ideas will cease to traverse your brain at all, 
and you will end a burden to the community. 

It must be clearly borne in mind that shyness can be conquered, if 
not wilfully encouraged, just as it undoubtedly can be fostered by indul- 
gence ; for as our desires act strongly upon our will, so it is possible for 
our will to act on our desires, controlling both our attractions and our 
repulsions. Shyness is a kind of collapse of will, a form of moral par- 
alysis ; but we can strengthen the natural powers of our will as we can 



FEMALE BEAUTY. 365 

strengthen a feeble limb, by steadily exerting it, and each effect will 
make the succeeding effort less painful. How often one sees children, 
too young to be reasoned with, suffering almost physical pain for shy- 
ness, and making everybody suffer with them, till a merciful nurse 
removes them ! 

To the stupid girl I have I fear little to say ; she is the most hope- 
less of the invisibles. She is a bore in and out of her family circle ; yet 
she may perhaps be of use in hemming dusters and doing what she is 
told. 

It may, however, be comforting to know that a thoroughly stupid 
woman is a rara avis (and in these days every rarity is a prize). There- 
fore, do not venture to conclude that you come under this class on the 
mere authority of rude brothers and unsympathetic mammas. 

GIRLS WHO ARE CALLED STUPID. 

Yes. The stupid girl is often miscalled. Plenty are voted " stupid" 
whose capacities lie outside the sphere of their fellows, or rare of another 
order. For instance, in an energetic family, one weakly member may 
lack her sisters' application to given tasks ; or in a conversational circle, 
one member may have no head for dates, events, no sense of certain kinds 
of humor — yet may secretly be a miracle of presence of mind. Or in a 
literary family, one member may hate the sight of pen, ink, and books^ 
yet may possess a sweet voice. These may possibly each be voted 
" stupid " by those who do not understand them — too often one's own 
immediate companions ; yet were their latent talent developed, not 
stupidity but genius might be drawn forth. 

Let everyone who has been branded as " stupid " examine herself 
steadily, coolly, and in secret. Let her consider what she takes most 
pleasure in, what she can do best or least ill — and let her patiently set 
about improving that little germinal faculty till she sees her way to being 
of some use to somebody. When she is that, she will know she is no 
longer invisible, but a visible ministering spirit. 

Can she not sing? perhaps she can write. Can she not do the 
simplest sum ? perhaps she can nurse the sick. If she cannot under- 
stand a problem, or a joke, or draw an inference, or learn languages. 
play chess, or catch a tune, perhaps she can act, or cook, or paint, or 
manage a garden, or comfort the sad or teach children (.which not every- 
one can do, however clever, and seldomest those who can do nothing else). 



366 FEMALE BEAUTY. 

Whatever she thinks she likes doing, let her try to do it well, at whatever 
cost of trouble or money, and in spite of all dissuasion. 

Come forward, "stupid" friends, cast off the stigma which is ener- 
vating you, cultivate your powers of helping, and don't for pity's sake 
neglect your powers of pleasing. 

MAY BE PLAIN BUT WITTY. 

The plain girl, I am speaking of female beauty, is the most promis- 
ing of the group. People can't make themselves witty if they were born 
with a sluggish circulation of blood to the brain ; they can't be clever if 
the cerebral works have been left out of their composition ; but they can 
by the aid of dress make themselves ornamental if they are plain. Lord 
Chesterfield said, no woman is ugly when she is dressed ; that is truer of 
our day even than of his, for the wind is tempered just now to the shorn 
lamb. Those dear and much abused c< prae-Raphaelite " painters, whom 
it is still in some circles the fashion to decry, are the plain girls' best 
friends. They have taken all the neglected ones by the hand. All the 
ugly flowers, all the ugly buildings, all the ugly faces, they have shown 
us have a certain crooked beauty of their own, entirely apart from the 
oddness which supplies the place of actual beauty sometimes, and is 
almost as attractive. There is a charm in low coloring, in straight or 
irregular lines, in restful tame faces per se. The prse-Raphaelites have 
taught us that there is no ugliness in fact, except deformity — nay, even 
that sometimes is not ugly, for things are all comparative. Do not some 
people admire a cast in the eye, a slight goitre, even a limp ? 

Morris, Burne Jones, and others, have made certain types of face and 
figure once literally hated, actually the fashion. Red hair — once, to say 
a woman had red hair was social assassination — is the rage. A pallid 
face with a protruding upper lip is highly esteemed. Green eyes, a 
squint, square eyebrows, whitey-brown complexions are not left out in 
the cold. In fact, the pink-cheeked dolls are nowhere ; they are said to 
have " no character " — and a pretty little hand is occasionally voted char- 
acterless too. Now is the time for , plain women. Only dress after the 
prae-Raphaelite style, and you will be astonished to find that so far from 
being an " ugly-duck " you are a full fledged swan ! 

Thus, if pretty, you can do as you like : you can't be spoilt except 
by time. If plain, you cannot do as you like : you must adopt quaint- 
ness of action and of garb ; but time is powerless to spoil you, and in the 



FEMALE BEAUTY. : J /j7 

long run you have actually the advantage. Whilst your pretty sisters 
are fretting over their lost bloom, you flourish ever in your soberer hues ; 
the losses of age are more easily replaced in you than in them, and the 
probability is that you are more popular. 

But to gain this end, care and thought must be employed. No one 
can be great without working for it. Take the utmost care in selecting 
good and indescribable colors, and graceful forms, whether fashionable or 
no — study your countenance, and dress your hair as best beseems it, 
whether gibes pursue you or applause. Take pains with your manners. 
be patient with scoffers, yet inflexible, and in a very short time a merry 
harvest will be yours ! 

DISAPPOINTMENT OF SUITORS. 

Suppose me to be an eligible suitor. I go one evening to visit a 
family of sisters, well-born, well-educated, and sufficiently well off. The 
eldest is called Emily. She is not pretty, and never was, and has now 
reached eight-and-twenty, and become the chaperone of her younger 
sisters. She has never been engaged, and seems to think that as her 
fourth sister is now eighteen, she has herself no further chance of mar- 
rying, and has only to accept cheerfully her role of old maid of the 
family. It is no doubt her destiny never to be cared for by anybody, and 
she was intended for one of the useful ones. So she goes in for being 
fearfully useful, is an admirable daughter, despises amusements as a nice 
for the young ones, but rather frivolous," wears her soft brown hair 
scraped down on each side of her face "tidily," high unfashionable 
dresses in the evening, thinks of everyone's comfort and happiness but 
her own, and refuses to dance. 

I find Ijmily, on my arrival, in a dark silk dress knitting a stocking-, 
in the strongest light in the room. As the gas pours on her patient 
face, I notice instantly that she is somewhat passee ; in any other place 
this might have been unobserved, for I know her to be only twenty eight, 
though to-night I find it difficult to believe it; her features are w 
formed, but the style of dressing the hair absolutely forces on your atten- 
tion the increasing hollowness of her cheek. 

I remember a young fellow who liked her very much last year, and 
would probably have ended by telling her so, but he could not stand her 
practiced old-maidish ways and sayings; in short, he could not propose 
to a girl who would not sit still for a single moment without knitting. I 



FEMALE BEAUTY. 

have seen Emily look younger than she looks to-night ; but that was one 
sunny day in a room whose pink blinds were drawn down to the ground. 
Emily shakes hands, with ringers entangled in grey worsted, knits 
hard through my second sentence, and then, lest attention to me should 
cause her to drop a stitch, I go off to find Alice, who is the pretty one of 
the four. A prettier girl I have never seen than Alice — as she looks some- 
times ; but she makes terrible mistakes. She has what is called golden 
hair — that is, drab. She has heard that people with fair hair ought to 
wear blue. So she wears blue — a shade too dark, which does not impart 
a scrap of yellow to her hair. She has a velvet band fastened tightly 
across it — her head is not of a pretty shape, though she has a sweet 
smile — she does not know that a broad band across the hair is the most 
trying thing in the world — not one head in twenty can bear it. 

ABSURDITIES OF DRESS. 

I don't discover her for some minutes ; the drawing-room is a very 
gay one, with sky-blue doors, and white walls and ceiling. Presently I 
discern Alice sitting against the blue door in the usual blue dress a shade 
too deep. She informs me that I have passed her twice — I do not think I 
am to blame ! Her next sister, Dora, is standing by her in white : her 
dress is cashmere, and though evidently new, from the angular form of 
the plaits and the loud crackling of the lining, it naturally looks dirty 
against the snowy freshness of the paper on the wall. Having just come 
in from the dark street, the extreme whiteness of the room dazzles me ; 
I can't see outlines. Dora is very sallow, and unhappily carries a blue 
fan, which makes her look as yellow as a guinea. 

Clemence " came out" last week, and is nearly as pretty as Alice in 
her way. She has a dark complexion which, when she has a color, is very 
clear and beautiful. She is a little coquette, and just now when she does 
not know I am watching her, she looks charming. I can just see her 
profile against a pure yellow screen which I have always hitherto hated 
for its raw color, because they generally have the gaslight sharp upon it. 
To-night the lamp happens to be on one side, and the hue which it 
borrows in the naif-light enhances the slight flush on Clemence's cheek. 
I cannot see her dress for a large crimson chair stands between us. She 
knows I admire her. When she observes me she will blush, and perhaps 
banter me. Now she turns and comes forward. 

Alas ! she wears a satin dress of the exact color of her face, with 



FEMALE BEAUTY. 369 

flounces up to the waist. I had always fancied her tall : to-night she 
appears hardly four feet high : this is caused by the flounces. I am 
disappointed, and liked her better behind the chair. As we speak she 
turns her head over with what would be a pretty gesture if she had not a 
scar on her throat, and places against her cheek a scarlet fan — this is the 
finishing touch which takes away absolutely every 'vestige of her color. 
She looks positively hideous as she stands. I will go back to Alice. 

Alice has the prettiest of shoulders, and perhaps that may excuse her 
for adopting a fashion so ugly as a low dress. Her arms are a little too 
fat, and rather red at the elbow. The hard straight line around her neck, 
trimmed with hard X's in blue velvet, would ruin any neck but hers. 
Imagine Sir' Thomas Lawrence painting a lady with such a pattern on 
her dress ! She is occupied in welcoming some guests. 

OLD LADIES WHO ARE TERRIBLY THIN. 

Who is the young lady who has just come into the room with a 
lady so fat and so scantily dressed that her friends ought to shut her 
up ? Her gloves are cutting through her wrists, her voluminous white 
and pink train impedes her already difficult progress. I don't know which 
of them is most offensive. The old young lady is terribly thin. There 
is a frightful hollow in her back ; the vertebrae of her spine are like 
a crocodile's ; but she obeys the fashion heroically. She has also lost 
a tooth. Probably she is one of Emily's sort — abhors what is false ; her 
hair is very thin, so much so that it would be true to say that she had 
none, but she would scorn a single band of false hair. 

My hostess's daughters are better than this ; I perceive Emily's foot : 
it is large : she seems rather proud of its size, and protrudes it, incased in 
a conspicuous white kid sheath considerably too big for her, as a mark 
of her superiority to these considerations of form. Alice, I know, has a 
tiny little foot: to-night it is entirely concealed by the most enormous 
rosettes I have ever seen, and might be as big as a Piet's — that canny 
race who made a virtue of necessity and used on sunny days their 
feet for umbrellas. 

The last straw has been laid on my back, and I take my leave. 

To a man who has a quick eye for the picturesque, or, let us say, the 
fit and proper, and there are such men, these sights in modern drawing- 
rooms are more than disagreeable — they are ghastly. 1 am saying 
nothing about indecency. That is hardly a portion of niv present subject 
24 



370 FEMALE BEAUTY. 

But why, if a woman has a neck like a skeleton, must she tell the world 
so ? Why, if fate has made her grow stouter than it is permitted to be, 
must she squeeze herself into the tightest of costumes because it is the 
fashion ? Why must she draw a hard line around her shoulders, that 
seems to cut her in two, and wear sleeves which are mere straps to keep 
her gown on, without caring, without knowing, whether her arms are 
pleasing to see ? 

Why must she wear trimmings of great O's and X's and Vandykes 
on her skirt, so that at a little distance the first thing about her that 
strikes the eye is the trimming? Why, if very tall, must she take the 
arm of a very little man, and make herself and him look absurd ? Why 
will she draw attention to her want of color by wearing red or arsenic 
green ? Why, with red hair, is her dress pink ? Why, when in a very 
pale dress, does she lean against the wall which ignorance has papered 
with white ? Why, with black hair, does she caarry a heavy burden of 
jet flowers, combs, and impossible thick plaits, till her head seems like an 
elephant's on an antelope's body ? Why will she trust to the very 
moderate gifts nature has endowed her with, to fight against the most 
abnormal disadvantages? 

Why — why — but enough — these are only some of the insane 
mistakes that nearly all girls commit, many of them girls with artistic 
tastes and capacities, in every direction except dress, whose eyes you 
may see shine with pleasure at a sunset or a bean-flower — -which, never- 
theless, they steadily refuse to take a hint from ? 

Very few women know what style of dress suits them best, or what 
colors : some neglect themselves like Emily ; even those who, like 
Clemence, study the art, study it wrongly. One may often see a 
woman who has the makings of a dignified goddess all bent up, or a 
little creature attempt to be stately who can only be simple. The best 
grace is perfect naturalness. Our manners form themselves, but we 
must form our setting of them. Nature can do much, but not every- 
thing. Art should lend a hand. 




CHAPTER XXX. 

S in our age and climate the human body is 
habitually and completely veiled, the veil 
assumes an artistic importance second only 
to the forms that are hidden. In nothing 
are character and perception so insensibly 
but inevitably displayed, as in dress, and 
taste in dress. Dress is the second self, a 
dumb self, yet a most eloquent expositor of 
the person. 

There are garments, as there are faces and 
natures, who have no " bar " in them — ■ 
nothing which stops with a sudden shock 
your pleasure in them, nothing that dissatis- 
fies or perplexes you. There are colors that 
are always beautiful because they recall 
nature, fashions which are beautiful because 
sensible and fulfilling the aim for which they were invented. In fact, no 
dress can be beautiful that is not appropriate, and appropriateness consists 
chiefly in graceful expression and useful purpose. 

In modern days — so far removed from those when dress was regarded 
as a mere covering, and aspired to be no more (although it always 
admitted of decoration, such as jewelry or needlework ' — we no longer 
look upon a gown as a shield against wintry cold, or a modest veil 
drawn between ourselves and the outer world. We expect it to be a work 
of art. Much money, representing much labor, is lavished upon every 
garment. When the silk-weaver has spent his skill upon the production 
of even texture, delicate gloss, and rare tints, only half the work is done. 

371 




372 IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 

We cannot fling and fold the rich piece npon ns after the simple fashion 
of our forefathers. We want it more to express than to hide us. 

A clever craftswoman must cut it to the approved shape, and sew it 
into form ; it must be clothed upon with other and richer fabrics, which 
we call " trimming," until its original price is doubled. Every form is 
eagerly borrowed for these trimmings. Patterns old and new are 
exhausted to form attractive combinations — the Greek frieze, the mediae- 
val missal-border, the whole animal and vegetable kingdoms are laid 
under contribution — our very discontent with all there is, and our insati- 
able cravings for novelty, is one of the diseases consequent on a certain 
repletion of variety. Raised work, indented work, tabs, fringes, frills, — 
there is no possible form of ornament that we have not tried and cast 
aside. So that a dress now claims to be considered as a work of art. 

VULGAR TASTE IN DRESS. 

Now, if dress be worth all this elaboration, if it intends to reach, as it 
evidently aspires to do, the platform of a picture, or a poem, or a fine 
building, the art it adopts must be either good or bad art. I believe the 
melancholy truth to be that we can hardly find a modern dress which is 
not throughout in the worst taste and opposed to the principles of all 
good art. 

Yet, at the same time I think that to a certain extent the milliners 
mean well. I think that the women who spoil themselves with the 
milliner's devices mean well too. They do want to make the best of 
themselves, to be " things of beauty," and not eyesores. But how to do 
this they don't know, and they don't think, and they generally refuse to 
learn. There are some ladies who always look well ; they are not neces- 
sarily the pretty ones ; but they are women gifted with fine natural taste, 
who instinctively choose right forms, colors, and fabrics, generally with- 
out knowing why. These, however, are exceptions. 

If everybody who could hold a pencil were suddenly called upon to 
paint a picture, there would be only a few out of every score at least who 
would betray any sense of grace, perspective, color, or design. Would it 
not be wise for those unpossessed of the sacred fire to receive instruction of 
some wholesome kind before they wasted time and good material to so 
little purpose ? 

But what is true of painting is true also of dress. We need not 
all paint, but we have all got to dress, and the sooner dress is recognized 



IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 373 

by our women as an art-product, the better (and probably the more 
cheaply) they will be able to apparel themselves. 

What usually takes place in this country in the matter of dress ? 
Vain persons who are proud of their appearance, and wish to make the 
most of themselves, spend much time in covering themselves with things 
that make an artist lift up hands and eyes of regret, astonishment, and 
pity. Those who are not vain often exclaim, " Don't ask me ! I will 
wear anything that is brought to me I" and both act from ignorance. 
The vain person wastes time and defeats her own aim ; the other is too 
ignorant to know that there is anything to know worth knowing, and does 
not sufficiently respect what God has given her, to care how she looks ; 
so there is always a discord between her inner and outer self. 

Yet, dress, and a proper care for it, ought not to minister merely to 
vanity, nor impair in any degree the moral tone. A woman ought to 
care what she wears for her own sake and for the sake of those about her. 
It is a fault, not a virtue, to be reckless as to the impression one leaves 
on the eye, just as it is a fault to be indifferent to the feelings of others : 
in either case. there is a sad absence of those subtle and beautiful percep- 
tions that constitute a delicate and gentle mind. 

INDIVIDUAL TASTE SUPPRESSED. 

But how difficult it is for a woman to be really well dressed, under 
the existing prejudice that everybody must be dressed like everybody 
else ! This notion of a requisite livery is paralyzing to anything like 
development of individual taste, and simply springs from the incapacity 
of the many to originate, wherefore they are glad to copy others ; but 
this majority have succeeded in suffocating the aesthetic minority, many 
of whom are now forced to suppress really good taste for fear of being 
called "affected." We shall never have any school of art in America, 
either in dress or decoration of any kind, until the fundamental principle 
of good art is recognized, that people may do as they like in the matter, 
and until women cease to be afraid of being laughed at for doing what 
they feel to be wise and right. 

There can be no originality of scheme until individual taste is 
admitted to be free ; and how can there be individuality while all are 
completely subservient to law, that law usually determined by folk who 
have neither natural feeling for beauty nor education ? 

With regard to the milliner, ladies should remember that by trusting 



374 IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 

to the milliner's " taste " (?) they are merely playing into the hands of 
various tradesmen whose interest it is to sell their goods, be they good or 
bad. The manufacturers' mill must be kept going, therefore the fashions 
must change ; the milliner loves her perquisites, therefore she encourages 
every fashion which is of a kind to deceive the eyes as to quantity of 
material. It is to her interest that you should not be able to measure the 
exact number of yards she has used ; it would be to her customer's very 
considerable interest did the customer calculate and understand more than 
she usually does, how much stuff is required for flounce, skirt, or sleeve ! 
It is as absurd to suppose that every variety of short and tall, grave 
and gay, young and old, must be dressed in one style, as that the same 
coat must fit every man. How should it be so, whilst nature revels in 
endless dissimilarity ? Why is the woman with taste for color and form 
to sacrifice her gift to the others who have it not, and copy, when she is 
capable of originating ? Why is one's individuality, so clear within, to 
be confused without ? 

TIED TO IGNORANT FASHION. 

Alas ! perhaps it is a misfortune to be an individual at all. We know 
the pity, the deep commiseration which satirists say ill-natured women 
feel for those who are congenitally conspicuous — for good looks. Is it a 
similar commiseration for those who possess the next best thing, good 
taste, which has destroyed the interpretation of a beautiful mind, as it 
would like to stamp out a beautiful body ? 

If so, in the name of art and nature both, let us shake off the lethargy 
which immolates us to a Juggernaut of ignorant opinion, and let us assert 
our individuality, if we have any, in dress as in other things. Woman is 
most beautiful when she is most herself and least conscious of it — in 
dress as well as in other things : and as I am at present treating chiefly 
of her looks, which depend in great measure on her dress, I may lay down 
as a general 'principle that dress is most beautiful and most becoming when 
it follows the outlines of the human form. 

'Dress bears the same relation to the body as speech does to the brain ; 
and therefore dress may be called the speech of the body. Speech was 
supposed to be meant for the expression of thought, till a modern cynic 
told us it was on the contrary for its concealment. Dress once expressed 
the person, now it disguises it ; well, disguise may sometimes be neces- 
sary — but when dress carries its anatomical fictions as far as evasion may 



IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 375 

be carried, as far as falsehood , it ceases not only to be respectable, but 
beautiful as well. Observe further, that plenty of time — too much — is 
given to the dressmaker. Very little is given to dress itself; no thought 
is expended on the dress requirements which the dress is to supply. No 
American woman considers the meaning of each trimming, or form, or 
color. She does not even consider whether it expresses in any degree her 
character, tastes, or wants. 

French women, on the contrary, have carried too far the idea of dress 
as an index of the inner self. They have got a right notion by its wrong 
end. Without ever, or seldom, producing a costume which is really beau- 
tiful, meeting all needs, they have originated a kind of language of dress 
more vulgar and less excusable than the Italian language of flowers, 
which, apparently, is intelligible to a certain class of people, but in my 
opinion, robs social intercourse of its spontaneity and self-unconscious- 
ness, and, in the case of dress, degrades woman to the level of a walking 
advertisement — of something baser than trade prices. 

TASTE SHOULD HARMONIZE WITH CHARACTER. 

It is true that the colors and forms we employ should reflect our 
tastes and harmonize with our character. A Puritan or Quaker in bright 
colors would be inconsistent — a gay young face in a nun's veil is equally 
revolting. There are many persons who would be always out of place in 
a stately sacque, and some who would be lost and spoilt in the crossing 
bodice with its village grace. It is lawful and necessary to consider, when 
ordering a dress, what will make it suitable and appropriate, and also what 
will give the trimmings some artistic significance. A flounce that begins 
and ends without reason for existence, a meaningless scroll seemingly 
fallen haphazard on the lap but attached by no apparent means, buttons 
without button-holes, imitation lacing, etc., are bad in art, and to be 
eschewed by all who aim at being really well dressed. 

There are two general rules to be observed in dress : 
i. That it shall not contradict or falsify the natural /furs of the 6 
— be that body slightly or fully expressed — and perhaps complete conceal- 
ment is no gain to the moral, as it is a marked loss from the artis 
point of view. The Greek saw nothing evil in nature but what coarse 
minds brought there. The body is so beautiful that it is a pity it can be 
so little seen ; but the morality or immorality, the decency or indecency, 
consists in the motive of display. 



376 IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 

2. That the attire shall express to a reasonable extent the character of 
the wearer. I really do not think that American women ever mean 
anything at all by adopting one trimming in preference to another, nor 
that the idea of certain interpretations is one that often occurs to them. 
They put themselves in the hands of their milliners, believing blindly 
that these professional advisers have given that thought to their costume 
which properly can and ought to be given by the wearer only. They 
think so little about the matter that they do not even guess how much 
they lose by this indifference. A woman may wear a dress many times 
without really knowing how the materials and folds mingle on her train. 
Far better so than that our American women should come to attach the 
kind of importance to details attributed to French women ; but best, were 
women to bring pure minds to bear with common sense on what they 
wear, and why they wear it — considering utility as well as ornament. 

SIMPLE LAWS TO BE OBSERVED. 

In proceeding to lay down a few simple laws about the right and 
wrong — call it morality if you will — of dress, I notice, firstly, the moral- 
ity of what we wear, which includes the questions of decency and inde- 
cency in dress ; secondly, the morality of how we wear it, which is quite 
another matter, simply affecting ourselves and not the garment ; and then 
there is, thirdly, the independent morality of the fashion in itself. 

Firstly. The morality of what we wear. Decency in dress is a diffi- 
cult question, and one too lengthy and involved to discuss fully here. We 
need only give a few examples, which may suggest more to thinking 
minds. The human body uncovered is not necessarily a shocking thing. 
There is nothing wrong or improper in that which is made in God's own 
image, and which is justly held to be the highest type of beauty in creation. 

And at a time when beauty for its own sake was intensely appreci- 
ated, when it was cultivated with something of a religious enthusiasm, 
when a mother longed for her child to be beautiful because beauty was 
felt to be divine, at such a time, in the. fair warm climate of Greece and 
Italy, it was hardly thought needful to veil the body. The Greeks were 
proud of their beautiful bodies, as we are of a beautiful face, and a bare 
leg was no more to them than a bare arm is to us ; and the sexes mingled 
in free and honest companionship, clad only in a thin stola, children 
being devoid even of that. 

But what was harmless in the early Greeks would be impossible in 



IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 377 

nations who Have lost to a great extent the simple instinct of natural 
beauty, whilst they have grown abnormally self-conscious and reflective. 
There are tribes in the East still, of no mean virtue (acting up to their 
lights), who consider the exposure of the face, or their identity, indelicate, 
but the rest of the body, wherein everybody is more or less alike, may 
" go bare, go bare." 

The Turkish woman in her loose trouser, perhaps the most modest 
and sensible of all feminine costumes, is often held up as a type of indel- 
icate dress ; but in many respects our own fashions are open to juster 
criticism, when they seem to admit an impropriety by displaying a part 
only, just enough to hint at the rest, as though conscious of something 
wrong. This is far worse than the entire expression of the form, where 
use and artistic appreciation, or simplicity of mind, have divested it of all 
exclusively evil associations. 

NUDE FIGURES IN SCULPTURE AND PAINTING. 

Secondly. The morality of how we wear a thing — depending on the 
wearer's mind. Some women, though covered up to the eyes, always 
look indelicate ; some others, decolletee as the dressmaker and a corrupt 
custom have made them, are in their natural innocence without reproach. 
We may see this in. statues and pictures. It is the mind which makes or 
mars. Many nude figures in sculpture and painting are inoffensive, 
because the face, which is the index of the mind, is free from shame or 
blame, and the whole attitude is sweet and unconscious. 

Thirdly. But of the first and second moralities it is not so much 
our wish to speak here ; they must be left to the healthy instincts of pure 
women, and each will surely enough, by her mode of dress, betray her 
mind's bent ; we can thereby, as it were, compute her orbit. But as to 
our third point, the morality of the garment itself now engages our atten- 
tion. This may be seen when it is hung on a peg, with no human form 
inside it. For moral qualities may be applied to the fashioning and adorn- 
ing of a robe from a purely artistic point of view, as they may be applied 
to a building. The noble principles of art, which are all founded upon 
healthy nature, are all " moral " — that is, they tend to exercise a right 
influence on the mind; they satisfy, soften and do not enervate or bar 
it. All these principles may be as apparent in a gown as in a cathedral. 

Probably nothing that is not useful is in any high sense beautiful. 
At least it will be almost universally seen, in the matter of dress, that 



378 IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 

where an effect is bad, it is an artificial or false effect, and vice versa. A 
trimming, as before remarked, that has no reason for existence is gener- 
ally ungraceful. A pendent jewel simply sewn to a foundation, where it 
neither holds up nor clasps together any part of the dress, usually looks 
superfluous, as it is. Above all, bows (which are literally nothing but 
strings tied together) stuck about w T hen there is no possibility of their 
fastening two parts, almost always appear ridiculous ; when needed for a 
mere ornament, a rosette should be used, which pretends to be nothing 
else. 

In the making of dresses, lines ending nowhere, and nohow, are often 
apparent, and never fail to annoy the eye. The outlines of bonnets are 
conspicuous instances of this mistake. There is no art instinct, and but 
little of the picturesque element, in a people who are indifferent to these 
things, and whose eye does not instinctively demand a meaning and token 
in everything. In architecture we do not immediately detect and condemn 
a pillar that, resting on nothing, appears to support a heavy mass of 
masonry ; an arch that is gummed against, not built into a wall, unsup. 
ported, and therefore in an impossible position ; or a balcony that has neither 
base nor motive, unsupported and supporting nothing ! 

NOVEL FORMS OF ATTIRE. 

And these things are not seldom seen on the fronts of our more 
decorative buildings, where the ignorant architect, knowing the whole 
thing to be a sham, the balconies of plaster, the carvings cement, the 
lintels fictitious, the pillars hollow, forgets that the forms he borrows were 
meant for use, and not merely for show. The uncultured dressmaker, 
only longing for novelty, invents forms of attire that would be impossi- 
ble were dress less utterly artificial than it is, and this is half the 
cause of our universal ill-dressing. No fashion or form can leave the 
mind without a jar, that is not where it is because indispensable there. 
Whether it occur in a house or in a gown, the principle must be the 
same. 

One of the reasons why peasants, fish-wives, and such folk, look 
picturesque and beautiful even in their rags, whatever be the mixture 
of color or arrangement of form — so much more beautiful than fashion- 
able people look even when they try to imitate the fish-wives — is, I think, 
the motive apparent in everything they wear. The bright kerchief that 
covers the peasant's shoulders is so much better than a bodice trimmed 



IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 379 

in the form of a kerchief. The outer dress that really covers an under 
dress fully and fairly is so much more satisfactory than one which 
only pretends to do so, and betrays its own deceit at the elbows, or the 
wrists, or behind, or in some other unexpected place. 

Anything that looks useful and is useless is bad, and the more 
obviously artificial a thing is, the worse it must always be. A hood 
that is at once seen to be incapable of going over the head ; some- 
thing that looks like a tunic in one place, yet in another is seen to 
have no lawful habitation nor a name ; a false apron ; a festoon that looks 
as though it had fallen accidental] y upon the skirt, when by no possible 
means except glue or irrelevant pins could it stay there ; a veil that you 
at once perceive is never meant to descend over the face, but is tacked to 
the top of the head in an exasperating manner ; heavy lappets, that instead 
of being the natural termination of something else, hang meaningless and 
mutilated ; slashes that are sewn upon the sleeve instead of breaking 
through it ; and other things of the same kind — they leave the eye unsat- 
isfied, discontented, often disgusted, as these are artistically immoral. 

TOO MANY FLOUNCES AND FURBELOWS. 

Indeed, the truth is, we have far too many subdivisions of attire 
about us to manage them properly. If we had but half the flounces and 
furbelows, and upper and under and middle skirts, and aprons and sashes, 
and " coat-tails" and festoons, we should just have half the difficult}' in 
combining and arranging effects. It is easier to drive two horses than 
six, as poor Phaeton could have told us when he upset the chariot of the 
sun. He was an ignorant driver, and so too often is a woman in the 
matter of dress. We ought never to admit an addition to our unmanage- 
able team, without due reason. 

We might dispense with half our complicated folds, our whalebones, 
our scrunched toes, our immovable arms, and many other miseries, and 
look less like mere blocks for showing off clothes, and more like human 
beings ; but we can't bear to let the housemaid or street beggar think we 
have got a nickel in our pockets when it can be hung or piled on our 
backs, and we go about loaded like the celebrated camel who finally 
collapsed under a straw. 

Let us have no burlesque parodies of classic simplicity, yet let us 
curb our insatiable passion for sticking everything we can procure. 
feathers and flounces, beads, birds'-nests, tabs, tinsel, and tails all ever 



380 IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 

us, anywhere, like wild Indians or the Terebella. Alas ! how like we are 
to the Terebella ! Perhaps you ask what is the Terebella ? 

The Terebella is a little creature that lives in the sea, to whose 
tender body nature has allotted no protective covering, and which cleverly 
sets itself to supply the want with a taste about as fastidious as that 
shown by our own fair countrywomen. It collects materials for its little 
coat with the same rapacity, and often with as little judgment — for some 
of its most ambitious ornaments being more costly than it can afford, 
have actually led to its own destruction. 

Nothing comes amiss to it. Sand, shells, pieces of straw, sticks or 
stones, atoms of sea-weed, every kind of debris within its reach, good, bad, 
or indifferent, it will collect and stick upon itself, agglutinated together 
by a secretion that among marine animals takes the place of needle and 
thread. It has even been known to add a heavy chignon pebble to its 
load, more inconvenient than serviceable, after quite a human fashion ! 
When its laborious coat is finished, it thrusts out its triumphant head and 
rejoices. This little creature is one of the annelids, and the pretty name 
of Terebella, though belonging to the sea, would not always be out of 
place on shore. 

WHAT IS BECOMING TO DIFFERENT PERSONS. 

As for dresses suitable to certain persons, I need say but little. 
There are many books on the etiquette of dress, showing what is proper 
to be worn in the morning and in the evening and at noonday. A few 
simple hints will suffice here. Those who are very stout should wear 
nothing but black ; those who are very thin should put a little padding 
in their gowns ; and neither should be in the least decolletee. Perpen- 
dicular stripes in dresses give height, and increase fulness, and are there- 
fore particularly suited to very slight, small people, and particularly 
unfitted for stout figures. 

To fair persons blue is becoming — but not every blue. Dark blue, 
or too brilliant a blue, is extremely unbecoming to that kind of complex- 
ion, and makes the skin yellow and the hair sandy. It is the old, pale, 
dull blue that really changes sand to gold. Pink, especially the old- 
fashioned yellow-pink, is, when not too brilliant, becoming to all com- 
plexions, except that which goes with red hair. Light green may be 
safely worn by the very dark, the very rosy, and by the very pale when 
the skin is extremely clear ; but to ordinary faces it is a trying color, 



IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 381 

though there are people who look well in nothing else. Green, mixed 
properly with pale blue, is very becoming indeed- 
Grey is the most beautiful color for old and young — I mean the soft 
silver grey which is formed by equal parts of black and white, with no 
touch of mauve in it. It admits of any color in trimming, and throws 
up the bloom of the skin. Rose-color, for some people, is pretty, and not 
unbecoming. White, so disastrous to rooms, is generally becoming in 
dress — only very coarse complexions are spoilt by it. 

Short women should never wear double skirts or tunics — they decrease 
the height so much ; unless, indeed, the tunic is very short, and the skirt 
very long. So also do large, sprawling patterns used for trimmings ; let 
these be left to women tall enough to carry them off. Neither let a very 
little woman wear her hair half down her back ; let her lift it clean up as 
high as possible. 

Large feet should never be cased in kid — least of all, white kid slip- 
pers — for kid reveals so clearly the form and movements of the feet, and 
stretches so easily, that few feet have a chance in them. Black stockings 
and shoes, even for evening wear, are the most appropriate choice. 

EVILS OP EXTRAVAGANCE. 

Although I have been dealing with the moralities of dress, I have not 
said a word about extravagance. That is a most important subject, no 
doubt, and one which everybody is bound to settle for himself. But the 
whole morality of luxury is quite a separate branch, and must be separ- 
ately discussed. 

Ladies are accused of spending too much on their dress : my point 
is, that whether they spend little or much, they may lay their money out 
on right — or wrong — artistic principles. A woman who understands and 
knows how to apply a few general principles, such as I have tried to 
point out, may often spend half as much as her friend who gives herself 
over to the dressmaker and empties her purse by exhausting the last 
fashion book. We are told again that ladies think too much about dress : 
I should say they think too little, or rather the}' don't think at all. If 
they thought a little more about dress, they would waste less time, and 
probably spend less money ; but the result would be grace, harmony, 
and expressiveness, instead of those astonishing combinations which rob 
the fairest women of half their charms, and expose ruthlessly the weak 
points of their less favored sisters. 



382 IMPORTANCE OF DRESS. 

We are most anxious that women should devote, not less time, less 
money, to the art of self-adornment, but even more, if the results are 
proportionately better. We are anxious that a pretty girl should make 
the very utmost of herself, and not lose one day of looking beautiful by 
dressing badly while her fresh youth lasts. We are desirous that when 
the first freshness is past, advancing age should not grow slovenly as it 
is apt to do, but that then the art which once enhanced beauty should 
conceal its fading away : we want every woman to be at all times a 
picture, an example, with no "bar'' between herself and her surround- 
ings, as there should be none between her character and its outward 
reflection — dress . 

For this reason, Nature must not be destroyed, but supported ; her 
beauties revealed, not stifled ; her weakness veiled, not exposed ; her 
defects tenderly remedied ; and no fashion should be tolerated which 
simply tends to burlesque her. As, in spite of Quakers and philoso- 
phers, women are likely to spend money and time over their dress to the 
end of the chapter, the sternest censor may well join in the hope that 
not the girl of the period, but the woman of the future, will produce 
greater results, waste less time, whilst bestowing more thought upon the 
beauty and the propriety of her dress. 





CHAPTER XXXI. 

N all ages of the world and among all 
nations, the hair has been regarded as one of 
the chief adornments of the person of the 
human family, while its healthy preservation 
and orderly arrangement have occupied much of 
the attention of the more cultivated and refined 
in every land. The hair is certainly one of the 
most important elements of that ensemble 
which constitutes the human being. Hence it is to 
the universal admission of this fact, that ingenuhy has 
been put to the rack in every clime, with the view of 
discovering remedies capable of increasing, or of even creat- 
ing the constituent characters of a fine head of hair, and also 
of ameliorating the defects of nature and of age. Notwith- 
standing all this, however, it is a matter of no little astonishment that 
comparatively so few artists of modern times have exercised their talents 
so as to demonstrate the advantage of taste, or taught a knowledge of 
the subject of arranging a lady's hair in a becoming and symmetrical 
manner. 

As an American writer of considerable celebrity has well remarked, 
" There might be a hundred studies of the various modifications 
of style, with an analysis 'of the meaning and expression of each 
one — the merry and the melancholy, the dignified and the playful, the 
firm and the yielding, the proud and the timid, the sainted and the 
coquettish, the practical and the poetical — each finding a picture of her 
own peculiar style, and guarded against stumbling ignorantly and uncon- 
sciously upon one which is entirely out of harmony with her character. 
It is a neglected chapter of the arts. We admire woman too much to 
think that the propriety and fitness of beauty in the dressing of her 
head is a trifling matter. Science and art might well combine to giv< 

3S3 



d64 THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

some comprehensive system and redeem it from the present barbarous 
haphazard." 

This is the right view to take of the matter, especially at a time like 
the present when the principles of art are so much regarded, and when 
their influence on dress and personal decoration are so manifest in the 
highest quarters of refined and enlightened society. 

GOVERNED BY FACIAL OUTLINES. 

We therefore believe that it is not out of place in a volume of the 
present character, to add our efforts to extend their use by practical 
illustration, so that there may be no excuse hereafter for the monstrous 
mistakes which have been made by many ladies on this subject, through 
an ignorance of the right mode of adapting the hair to the peculiarities 
of facial outlines so as to enable every one to render herself the 

" admired of all beholders," 

instead of repelling homage by a reckless and repeated outrage of the 
golden rules of propriety and good taste. My purpose, in the present 
chapter, accordingly is to treat of the structure of the hair, and to 
present the best means for its preservation, improvement and adornment 
in connection with the various styles in which it is worn and decorated in 
all parts of the world. Until of late years a great paucity of materials 
has existed in respect to this subject. Of all the tissues of the human 
body the hair has claimed the least attention among scientific writers, 
while among the more popular authors it has remained a theme almost 
contemptuously ignored, notwithstanding the personal appearance is 
dependent on healthy vigor, and the great care bestowed on its culture 
and arrangement in all countries. 

It is true, the poets have sung the praises of the flowing hair 
through all times, perhaps, yet it has not been till the last century that 
any really valuable scientific work has appeared, treating of it in a physi- 
ological and popular manner. Pope was perhaps the first author who 
elevated the theme to the dignity of letter-press consideration. His 
poem, " Rape of the Lock," has received a world-wide fame, and brought 
into the field numerous writers among the medical profession, who have 
not only presented elaborate scientific essays, and many curious facts on 
the subject of the human hair, but extended their researches as to its 
historical characteristics, as a means of personal adornment among all 
the nations on the face of the globe. 






THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 



385 



It is perhaps needless to say that I have availed myself of all 
materials of information, and that I expect to be pardoned for addressing 
myself to the task and giving to the world the collected result of my 
researches and experience in a matter of really very great importance to 
all classes of society, especially to the belle sexe. Besides showing the 
constitutional functions of the hair, and the best means of preserving it 
in a healthy condition, we shall show how to arrange the hair, and offer 
those golden rules which will serve to rectify all mistakes in respect to 
its use as a facial adornment. 

The whole body, except the palms of the hands and soles of the 
feet, is covered with hair, of a soft and downy character. 
The hair of the head is long and strong ; sometimes it 
is of remarkable strength ; while it embraces every 
variety of color, as shades between the two primary ones 
of red and black. Hair consists of a shaft, covered or 
enveloped by a distinct structure, called the corticle sub- 
stance, and may be compared to the outer bark of a tree. 

Root of Hair. — The root of hair is first devel- 
oped. It consists of two parts, sheath and bulb. The 
bulb is two or three times the diameter of the hair, and 
consists of granular cells. The cells form at the bot- 
tom of this follicle and gradually enlarge as they mount 
in the soft bulb, which owes its enlargement to the 
increase in the size of the cells. The color of the hair representation of a 

1 .. 1 . . .. -' ,- ., . - . -.— -, • , HAIR HIGHLY MAGNI- 

is also developed in the bulb, which is diffused with fied. 

the hair cells, giving it color. In grey hair there is no coloring matter. 

The cells of the bulb as they ascend become elongated and narrowed, 
which considerably diminishes the diameter of the shaft above the skin. 
These cells are so arranged together as to form the fibres of which the 
shaft consists. The corticle substance of the hair consists of cells 
arranged like the tiles upon a house, and they extend the whole length 
of the shaft. The hair follicle is lined by a reflection of the epidermis or 
outer covering of the skin, which dips down, forming an envelop for the 
bulb of the hair. 

Shaft. — The shaft is usually divided into the corticle, medullary 

and fibrous portions. The corticle, as before remarked, consists 

layer of cells like the tiles upon the roof of a house. The fib] 

portion consists of the aggregation of cells as they are farmed in the 
25 




386 THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

bulb. It is colored with pigment, in young and Healthy hairs. The me- 
dullary canal will be found in the centre of the hair, as is generally filled 
with coloring matter. In old and gray hairs the canal is nearly empty. 
Growth of Hair. — The growth of all hairs takes place at the root, 
which is largely supplied with blood-vessels. These vessels supply 
material for the cells of which the hairs are formed, and as the cells form 
they push the older ones up. In this way, additions are constantly being 
made to each hair. Hair is peculiarly susceptible of being affected by 
the conditions of the health. If the system be debilitated from any 
cause, the hairs will either fall off spontaneously or by degrees. It is 
only the bulb that comes away and not the sheath and germ, and hence 
may be regenerated. When the sheath and germ has been destroyed, 
hair cannot be replaced. 

VARIETIES OF COLOR. 

The color of the hair is a point of considerable interest in its physi- 
ology. It was once believed that the coloring matter or fluid circulated 
in the centre of the hair, but this idea has been completely exploded by 
the researches of modern microscopists. According to Bienvenu there are 
really but three colors of hair — black, red and white — all the other vari- 
eties being only so many different shades of the same. 

According to Cazenave and Grellier, there are but two principle 
types of hair — red and black, which belong the intermediate or decreas- 
ing shades, brown, chestnut, fair. Cazenave believes that white hair is 
the result of absence of coloring matter, as in the Albino, or of discolor- 
ation of the hair consequent of certain diseases. Grellier proves that 
the color of the hair varies according to climate. The nearer the north 
the fairer the hair of the inhabitants. 

The brightness of the beautiful golden hair is attributable to the 
excess of sulphur and oxygen, with a deficiency of carbon. The color- 
ing tint or pigment forms but one portion of the difference between the 
soft luxuriant tresses of the Saxon girl, and the coarse blue black locks 
of the North American squaw. 

According to Hassell the depth of the color of the hair depends upon 
the development of pigmatory matter in other parts of the system, as in 
the eye and beneath the skin. The coloring of the lighter hairs, as the 
red and flaxen, depend less upon the depth of coloring of the pigment 
cells and granules than upon the presence of minute globules of a 



THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 387 

colored oil. In the hair of Albinos, very little coloring matter is present ; 
in gray hair the color matter has deserted the pigment cells and granules. 

The constituents of different colored hair, we thus see, are by no 
means the same. All hair contains a certain portion of oily matter, some 
common salt, same phosphate of lime, a considerable portion of sulphur, 
various gases, and some manganese and iron. Fair hair contains least 
carbon and hydrogen ; brown hair the most carbon and the smallest quan- 
tity of oxygen ; red hair has the largest proportion of sulphur ; grey hair 
the most phosphate of lime. All contain an equal amount of nitrogen. 

The color of the hair corresponds with that of the skin — being dark 
or black with a dark complexion, and red or yellow with a fair skin. 
When a white skin is seen in conjunction with black hair, as among the 
women of Syria and Barbary, the apparent exception arises from protec- 
tion from the sun's rays, and opposite colors are often found among 
people of one prevailing feature. Thus red-haired Jews are not uncom- 
mon, though the nation in general have dark complexion and hair. 

MORAL ASPECTS OF THE CASE. 

Some writers suppose that there exists a certain relationship between 
the color of the hair and the moral temperaments. Thus the rapidity of 
circulation, love of change, vivacity of the imagination, and all other 
attributes of the sanguineous temperament, are associated with chestnut- 
colored hair. Black hair indicates athletic strength and vigor, energy 
and ambition, and the passions. Fair hair represents a soft and lax 
fibre, and is the emblem of mildness, tenderness and affection, blended 
with judgment; in short, all the qualities usually associated with a calm 
and mild temperament. 

According to Lavater, the hair affords a variety of indications of the 
temperament of an individual, of his powers, of his habit of thought, and 
consequently of his intellectual faculties. It corresponds with our physi- 
cal constitution, as plants and fruits do to the soil which produced them. 
The diversity of the covering of the lower animals sufficiently in 
the expressive meaning conveyed by the different qualities and cole 
the human hair. Compare the wool of the sheep with the fur of the w 
the hair of the rabbit with that of the hyena. 

The fair-haired inhabitants of the earth are found north of the paral- 
lel or 4S ; this line cutting off England, Belgium, the whole of Xorth 
Germany and a great portion of Russia. Between the parallels 



388 THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

and 45 , which includes northern France, Switzerland, and part of Pied- 
mont, passes through Bohemia and Austria proper, and touches the Geor- 
gian and Caucasian provinces of the Czar empire, dark brown hair is the 
predominant color. Below this line — Spain, Naples and Turkey — are 
found the genuine dark-haired races. 

Taking Europe broadly from north to south, its people present all 
gradations in the color of the hair : the light flaxen of the colder latitudes 
deepening by imperceptible degrees into the blue-black of the Mediterra- 
nean shores. The exceptions to this gradation are the dark tribes still 
lingering in England, the Celtic majority of the Irish ; while even the 
modern Normans are included among the black-haired. On the contrary, 
Venice, which is in a southern latitude, has always been famed for the 
golden beauty of the hair of the people, beloved so of Titian and his 
school. 

It would seem that race determines the color of the hair. Taking 
the parallel of 51° north and following it as it runs like a necklace around 
the world, we find a dozen nations threaded upon it, like so many parti- 
colored boards. 

SAMSON'S FLOWING LOOKS. 

The European portion of the necklace is light-haired ; whereas the 
Tartars, Northern Mongols, and aboriginal American Indians have 
straight black hair. Canada breaks the chain once more with the 
blonde tresses of the Saxon. 

Partial excess of hair, or the growth of hair, in usual parts is very 
common. The Biblical story of Samson, whose flowing locks were shorn 
by Delilah, is a striking instance of the kind. Such exuberance of hair 
is usually indicative of great physical vigor and strength in the male^ 
but considered a misfortune in women. Many females have whiskers and 
beards ; such are usually sterile. 

A Mexican woman was exhibited in the United States, under the 
style of the " Bear Woman." Her face and head resembled those of a 
bear, and she was covered all over with long black hair, resembling that 
animal. It was supposed that she was the result of an unnatural connec- 
tion of a bear with an Indian woman. This is scarcely credible, and 
barely possible, among the freaks of Nature. 

A bearded woman was exhibited at Barnum's Museum, in New York. 
Her whiskers and moustaches were full and symmetrical as ever seen on 



THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 389 

a modern dandy or " lady's man." She was married and the mother of 
several children. 

A bearded woman was taken by the Prussians, at the battle of Pul- 
towa, and presented to the Czar, Peter L, in 1724. Her beard measured 
a yard and a half in length. Madame Fortunne, a native of Geneva. 
exhibited in London, had a beard of enormous length. She was married, 
aged twenty-five, and the mother of a young child. This case is men- 
tioned in the " London Lancet." Numerous other instances of bearded 
females are on record. 

The famous General Hay nan, of Austria, whom the brewers of Lon- 
don mobbed, for his tyrannical propensities, and cruel treatment of Hun- 
garian women especially, had a moustache half a yard long ! Still greater 
was the beard of the carpenter depicted in the Prince's Court at Eidam, 
who, because it was nine feet long, was obliged, when at work, to sling it 
about him in a bag. 

HAIR CHARGED WITH ELECTRICITY. 

Hair is highly susceptible of electricity. Most persons have seen the 
sparkles and listened to and felt the tiny shocks elicited from the hpir of 
a cat by friction, and many have doubtless, while brushing their hair, 
observed the peculiar manner in which, under certain states of the atmo- 
sphere, and especially in frosty weather, each individual hair will fly apart 
and avoid the contact of its neighbor. This will also occur in certain 
states of the body, and in persons of nervous and sensitive temperament. 

Another peculiarity of hair is its hygrometric demonstrations, the 
curious way in which it will uncurl and lengthen itself under the influ- 
ence of damp or moisture, contracting again gradually as the atmosphere 
becomes dryer. This has been ascribed to the animal portions of it, 
which, having in their composition saline particles, attract the moisture 
in the atmosphere, and, by absorbing it, distend the body of the hair. 

The hair of a man's head is finer, generally, than that on the head ot 
a woman; but, if left uncut, it will not grow to the same length. A 
woman's back hair is an appurtenance entirely and naturally feminine. 
The hair upon the scalp, so far as it concerns its mechanical use, is no 
doubt the most important of the hair-crops grown upon the body. It 
preserves the brain from all extremes of temperature, retains the warmth 
of the body, and transmits very slowly any impression from without. 

The character of the hair depends very much upon the degree of 



390 THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

protection needed by its possessor. The same hair, whether of head or 

beard, that is in Europe and America straight, smooth and soft, becomes 

crisp and curly in hot climates, and will become smooth again after a 

return to cooler latitudes. 

According to Erasmus Wilson, the hair of women is coarser than 

that of men. It is not established that hair cut short tends to render it 

coarser and stronger. Flaxen and chestnut hair are the finest, and white 

and black hair the coarsest. Withof confirms these views. He adds that 

five hundred and ninety-eight black, six hundred and eighty-four chestnut, 

and seven hundred and twenty-eight flaxen hairs are about the average 

number produced on a square inch of the skin of the head. In some 

people the hair has a natural " disposition " to curl. In some it is very 

crispy ; in others stiff, straight and spering, while in another class the 

least moisture will cause it to hang in what children not inaptly call " rat 

tails." 

HAIR DISTRIBUTED OVER THE BODY. 

The distribution, concentration and location of the hair are deserving 
of some attention. While in most quadrupeds the whole of the body is 
covered with long hair, in the human race only a small portion has much 
that is visible to the naked eye. In main, the hair on the limbs varies 
considerably in length ; in some being merely pubescent, while in others 
it is nearly an inch long, giving to the limbs a hairy aspect. It is always 
met with on the back of the hand and foot, but never on the sole or palm, 
a circumstance of great importance to the delicacy of the touch. 

No animal in creation experiences from his mane such inconvenience 
as man would do from the hair of his head if obliged to walk on all fours 
— an evident proof that he was intended by his Creator to maintain an 
erect position. The hair supplies a sort of pad to the head, by which it 
is protected from mechanical injury, and guarded from the inclemencies 
of the weather. 

The growth of the hair is limited. It grows longest in the female, 
waving over the neck and shoulders, screening and protecting them from 
injuries which might be sustained by free exposure to air, light, etc. In 
the softer sex it usually reaches to the waist. Sometimes its length is 
very great. Sir Charles Bell mentions a woman who had hair six feet 
long. Tennyson thus speaks of the Lady Godiva : 

"Anon she shook her head 
And showered the rippled ringlets to her knee." 



THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 391 

In man the hairs are tubular, the tubes being intersected by 
partitions, resembling in some degrees the cellular tissue of plants. 
Their hollowness prevents incumbrance from weight, while their power 
of resistance is increased by having their transverse sections rounded in 
form. 

According to Youatt, hair, although sometimes covered with scales 
or rugosities, has no serrations or tooth-like projections. The difference 
between wool and hair is that hair is imbricated or scaly, while wool is 
toothed or serrated. Bichat also asserts that hair is of an imbricated or 
bristled texture. The projections all point in one direction from the root 
to the tip, analogous to the feathered part of a quill. 

The various uses and economical purposes of the hair are not clearly 
understood. There is little doubt however, that, like the pubescence and 
leaves of plants, the hair performs some useful operations for the skin in 
absorption and ventilation. The leaves of plants and trees, we know, are 
mainly instrumental in absorbing the noxious carbonic acid gas of the 
atmosphere, and, after retaining the carbon, gives out the oxygen puri- 
fied. Plants which are divested of their leaves are invariably weakened 
in their growth or destroyed. 

SPECIAL PURPOSES SERVED. 

So, a deprivation of the human hair is usually found to weaken and 
enervate the frame. The history of Sampson proves that strength lies 
in the luxuriance, vigorous growth, and proper functions of the hair. Of 
special purposes fulfilled by hairs, we have instances in the eyebrows and 
eyelids, which are beautifully adapted for the defences of the organs of 
vision ; in the small hairs which grow in the apertures of the nostrils, 
and serve as guardians to delicate membranes of the nose ; and in simi- 
lar hairs in the ear tubes which defend their cavities from the intrusion 
of insects. They perform, also, the office of an apparatus of touch. We 
feel distinctly the disturbance of the hairs of the head by the movements 
of a fly, although the little animal is at some distance from the skin. 

When hair is boiled in water, a portion of it is dissolved, which on 
cooling, possesses the character of gelatine. The portion that is insol- 
uble has the properties of coagulated albumen. 

It is ascertained that a full head of hair, beard and whiskers, are a 
prevention against colds and consumptions. Occasionally, however, it is 
found necessary to remove the hair from the head, in cases of fever or 



392 THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

disease, to stay the inflammatory symptoms, and to relieve the brain. 
The head should invariably be kept cool. Close night-caps are unhealthy, 
and smoking-caps and coverings for the head within doors are alike 
detrimental to the free growth of the hair, weakening it, and causing it 
to fall out. 

Long hair is considered a special adornment of woman. The beau- 
tiful features and personal attractions of the fair sex are always enhanced 
by this ornament. Whether the auburn tresses fall in graceful folds, the 
rich and glossy curls are bound with roses, or 

" The long dark hair 
Floats upon the forehead in loose waves unbraided," 

either style will equally serve to set off the ensemble of female loveliness. 
The pillar of the Ionic order is constructed upon the model of a 
beautiful woman, with soft, flowing hair — 

" Her ringlets unconfined, 
About her neck and breast luxuriant play." 

The elegance and ingenuity displayed in this architectural pillar is 
in strong contrast with the Doric, which is formed after the model of a 
strong, robust man. 

The Goddess of beauty, without this elegant ornament of hair, 
though she had the brightest eyes, the fairest complexion and the most 
fascinating charms, would appear hideous and deformed. Homer speaks 
of the fair one who set all Asia in arms as the " beautiful haired Helen." 
Apuleius maintains that no bald Vemis could ever please even swarthy 
Vulcan. Petronius describes the tresses of Circe, the enchantress, as 
" falling negligently over her beautiful shoulders." Apuleius, also, 
praises her trailing locks, thick and long, insensibly curling, disposed 
over her divine neck, softly undulating with carelessness — 

1 ' Whose golden hair 
Around her sunny face in clusters hung. ' ' 

Ovid speaks of those beauties who plaited their golden hair like 
spiral shells. Amasia is described with long flowing hair, distilling the 
perfume of myrrh and roses, and that of Venus as diffusing around the 
divine odors of ambrosia. Coleridge speaks of 

" Mirth of the loosely flowing hair. ,r 

While the bards of Hellas boast of a Hypsipyle, that gorgeous 
beauty, whose hair fell flowingly to her feet. 



THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 393 

These, and a thousand other examples, show that in all ages and 
among all people, flowing hair was considered an essential element of 
female beauty. 

We repeat to women, long hair is an ornament, and adorning. It is 
an instinctive prompting of nature that woman should allow her hair 
to grow long. It gives her a sort of natural covering, and indicates the 
propriety of her wearing a veil. It answered the purposes of a veil when 
it was suffered to grow long, and to spread over the shoulders and over 
parts of the face before the arts of dress were invented or needed. We 
have already intimated that the hair of woman actually grows longer 
than that of man, which fact proves that flowing tresses are intended for 
some especial purpose in the economy of nature. 

Milton, in his " Paradise Lost," book IV, gives a description of the 
hair of Mother Eve : — 

"As a veil, down to the slender waist, 
Her unadorned golden tresses fell 
Dishevell'd, but in wanton ringlets waved." 

The poets and writers of ancient times, whatever their predilection 
in regard to the color of the hair, are unanimous in their admiration 
of luxuriant and flowing locks in woman. 

The predilection for certain colors of the hair differ in various 
countries. In the East black hair has ever been held in the highest esti- 
mation. The most polished ancient nations were passionately fond of 
red hair. The Turks are fond of women with red hair. The inhabitants 
of Tripoli give their hair a red tinge by the aid of vermillion. The 
women of Scinde and the Deccan dye their hair yellow and red, as the 
Romans did, in imitation of German hair. In Spain red hair is admired 
almost to adoration. Lately an English naval commander, who luxuri- 
ated in fiery locks, while in that country was greatly caressed in conse- 
quence by the Spanish women and looked upon as a perfect Adonis. 

In China a red-haired person is termed " Hung Maow Kwei," literally 
red-haired devil. Red is beautiful to the Chinese. They extol the peach 
flower because of its form and delicate red color ; all the fronts of their 
houses are red ; they use the vermillion pencil. The word " Kwei " is a 
general term for spirits, whether good or evil, and equivalent to our word 
spirits. Thus, u red-haired devil,'' instead of having an offensive signifi- 
cation, becomes u beautiful spirit." The Brazilians regard light hair and 
ruddy complexion as enviable marks of nobility. 



394 THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

The Germans were in the Habit of nsing a kind of soap of goat's 
tallow and beechwood ashes, to stain their hair red or yellow. The 
Roman ladies used to disguise their hair by wearing wigs composed of 
the hair of Germans. The peruke-makers of Rome, according to Ovid, 
bought up all the spoils of German heads to gratify those of his country- 
men, who were determined to conceal their fine black hair under a wig of 
light or flame color. Hair from Germany was sold at Rome for its weight 
in gold. Red hair has been almost universally given to warriors and 
golden tresses to ladies. In heathen mythology, the golden locks of 
Apollo, the red hair and beard of Mars, the yellow tresses of Venus, and 
the flaxen braids that were twisted under the helmet of Minerva, demon- 
strate how much this color was appreciated by the ancients. 

Sir Walter Scott, is his description of King James in " Marmion," 
says : 

"Auburn of the darkest dye, 
His short curled beard and hair." 

It is a favorite subject of description with our amatory writers ; — 

"Her soft, unbraided hair, 



Gleaming like sunlight upon snow, above her forehead fair. ' ' 
Another invites us to contemplate a picture — 

"Where 



Streamed its long tresses of golden hair, 
Like straggling sunbeams of softest glow 
Tinging the splendor of stainless snow." 

Modern poets seem to be very partial to golden hair. Milton speaks 
of it in a variety of places ; a Usa, golden-haired," and, " Hecserge, with 
the golden hair." In his drama of "Adam " he thus apostrophizes : — 

1 ' From that soft mass of gold that curls around it 

Locks like the solar rays ! 
Chains to my hearty and lightning to my eyes, 

O let thy lovely tresses, •* 

Now light and unconfined, 

Sport in the air, and all thy face disclose." 

In another place — 

"Her breast 
Met his, under the flowing gold 
Of her loose tresses hid." 



THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 395 

Petrarch again — 

" L,oose to the wind her golden tresses streamed." 
The royal poet, James the First of Scotland, writes of his lady's 
" golden hair." 

Sir Walter Scott thus describes Clara in Marmion : — 

' ' Now her bright locks with sunny glow 

Again adorned her brow of snow." 
" And down her shoulders graceful rolled 

Her locks profuse of paly gold." 

In the Lay of the Last Minstrel : — 

"All loose her golden hair." 

And speaking of Margaret, he says : — 

" Her blue eyes shaded by her locks of gold ! 
Her skin was fair, her ringlets gold." 

Shakespeare seems to have delighted in golden hair : — 

"Her sunny locks hung on her temples like the golden fleece." 

Bassanio, in the a Merchant of Venice,'' beholding Portia's portrait, 
enraptured, exclaims : — 

" Here in her hair 
The painter plays the spider, and has woven 
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of man 
Faster than gnats in cobwebs." 

In the " Two Gentlemen of Verona," Julia says of Sylvia and her- 
self:— 

" Her hair is auburn — mine is perfect yellow." 

Other passages will suggest themselves to every reader. Shake- 
speare mentions black hair only twice throughout all his plays, showing 
that he considered light to be the peculiar attribute of soft and delicate 
women. 

The old poets had a similar partiality for the color touched with the 
sun. Old Homer sings of this kind of hair. An ancient song has it — 

" Still for glyttering looks and gaze 
Thou wilt ever cite the sonne ; 
Here's a simple tress — I praye, 
Hath he such a golden one?" 



THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

Numerous other extracts might be quoted showing partiality for this 
color, but we need cite only a few more : 

" And parted hair, of a pale, pale gold, 
That is priceless every curl." 

" 'Tis sweet to part the sunny hair, 
And look upon the brow of those we love." 

1 ' The breath of heaven came from the summer bowers 
And stirred upon her cheek the golden curl 
That floated there as if it loved to kiss 
Its alabaster beauty." 

The old painters had the same fondness for golden tresses. In the 
English " National Gallery," the highest ideal of female beauty, from 
Corregio down to Rubens, are represented with golden or flaxen hair. 

There is not a single black-haired female head among them. It is to 
the fineness and multiplicity of hairs that blonde tresses owe the rich and 
silk-like character of their flow. In the days of the elder Palma and 
Giorgione yellow hair was the fashion, and the paler the tint the more 
admired. The women had a method of discharging the natural color by 
first washing their tresses with some chemical preparation, and then 
exposing them to the sun. In some districts of Africa, they prefer light 
hair. The Gauls, the ancestors of the modern French, had the same 
preference, though that color is now in disrepute with their descendants 
who like black hair. 

Red hair is often considered a deformity, but why it is hard to say, 
since in all cases the hair and complexion suit each other admirably. 
The " golden locks " and " sunny tresses " of the poets, invariably accom- 
panied the blonde, frank and manly faces inherited from Saxon ancestors. 
"Villainous red hair," " horrid red whiskers," are terms of contempt and 
ridicule; but hair is only " villainous '' and "horrible" when dirty and 
improperly worn. 

The prevailing sentiment in modern times seems, however, to be in 
favor of dark or black hair. In the East black hair is held in the high- 
est distinction. The Persians especially cannot tolerate any other color. 
The Song of Solomon says : " His locks are bushy, or curled, and black 
as a raven." Black hair characterized the prophetic virgins of the 
Druids. The women of Caraccas, Venezuela, are seldom blondes ; but 
with hair of the blackness of jet, they have the skin white as alabaster. 



THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 307 

Jet black eyes and raven tresses have their admirers in all countries. 
Ainsworth, in his " Thirty Requisites of Perfection," enumerates three 
black : " Dark eyes, darksome tresses, and darkly-fringed lids. What 
can be more seducing than jet black hair, falling in undulating ringlets 
upon the bosom of a youthful beauty I" 
Some people prefer brown : 

" She has ringlets richly brown, 
Livelier than a jeweled crown." 

The Zinder ladies of Central Africa color their hair with macerate 
indigo. They also color their flesh with this dye, the dark blue replac- 
ing the yellow ochre of the ladies of fashion in Aheer. The eyebrows 
are usually of a darker shade than the hair, which serves to give a tone 
of character to the forehead. 

" Black brown, they say, 
Become some women best, so that there be not 
Too much hair there ; but in a semicircle, 
Or half moon, made with a pen." — Winter's Tale. 

The ancient Romans considered it indispensable for a beauty to have 
her eyebrows meet, and in Scotland, persons whose eyebrows are so 
formed are considered lucky. In the East, a powder composed of anti- 
mony and bismuth is used to darken the eyelashes. In Circassia, 
Georgia, Persia, and India, the growth of children's eyelashes is promoted 
by tipping and removing the fine gossamer-like points with a pair of 
scissors when they are asleep. By repeating this every month or six 
weeks, they become, in time, long, close, finely curved and of a silky 
gloss. The practice never fails to produce the desired effect, and it is 
particularly useful when, owing to inflammation of the eyes, the lashes 
have been thinned or stunted. Byron in his " Bride of Abydos," alludes 
to the beauty of long eye-lashes in the following exquisite lines : 

"As a stream late concealed 
By the fringe of its willows, 
Now rushes revealed 
In the light of its billows : 

"As the bolt bursts on high 

From the black cloud that bound it — 
Flashed the soul of that eye, 
From the long lashes round it." 



398 THE HAIR WOMAN'S CHIEF ORNAMENT. 

Another poet says : 

" Half-drooping lids, deep-fringed, they shade 
The large blue orbs that shine below : 
Bright eyes ! by their own lashes weighed, 
Still, still the}' languish to and fro." 

The Japanese have a tradition that tea sprang from the eye-lashes 
of their pagan saints. This fable, like that of the alleged discovery of 
coffee by goats browsing on the leaves and becoming frisky, and monks 
thence testing their properties, took its rise, probably, from its effect in 
promoting wakefulness. 







- rrr^^"^ ■ •^• •■ "^ ■■* : , ~- 






! STYLES OF I 

j Wearing the Hair i 




CHAPTER XXXII. 

ERTAIN modes of wearing the hair have distin- 
guished particular nations. The Armenians 
and other Asiatics twisted it in the form of a 
mitre. The Parthians and Persians kept it 
long, floating and curled. It was thick and bristly 
with the Scythians and Goths. The Arabians, 
Abantes, etc., had it cut upon the crown of the head, 
while the Athenian Bacchantes kept it floating only. 
Girls wore it fastened upon the top of the head, and 
matrons had it tied and fastened upon the nape of 
the neck. To " remain in the hair," signified 
unmarried girls, who wore their hair long and not twisted into knots like 
that of married women. 

At a mediaeval period the modes of arranging the hair were very 
varied. It was lost beneath the hat in the time of Henry VIII. It was a 
cloud upon the head in the reign of George III. During the same period 
in France, it was curled on the temples and collected behind in distinct 
tresses by means of clasps. Margaret of Navarre frizzed her hair on the 
temples, and turned it wholly back in front. Puffing the hair and using 
white and yellow powder extravagantly were adopted. The head-dres 
were built or plastered up once a month, and sometimes at longer int 
vals ; so that, it is stated, on one occasion, a family of young mice was 
discovered on taking down the hair. Some flat bottles, containing water, 
were introduced into this pyramid to receive and give a freshness to the 
stems of the flowers with which it was adorned. 

The Spaniards parted their hair at the side, and so destroyed all 
balance of outline. Sometimes the coiffure resembled a mushroom. The 
Greeks wore their hair in a simple and elegant manner. I: was divi 
on the crown of the head, turned at the temples, falling gracefully in 



400 STYLES OF WEARING THE HAIR. 

loose ringlets on the neck and shoulders. If these were turned up, they 
were fastened with a single ornament, such as a golden stylus or pen. 

The ancient Greeks, at various periods, wore quantities of false hair, 
plaited their tresses into elaborate braids, curled them in a pyramid of curls, 
frizzled and pomatumed them, and it was only now and then that the 
classic head-dress we term Grecian predominated. 

The ancient Roman ladies made hair-dressing an absolute science, 
taught their slaves how to rear the hair into marvelous edifices of curls or 
frize, with flowers, jewels and coronals; or to plait it into multitudinous 
plaits, which were enclosed in a silken caul, or a net woven of gold and 
silver thread and gems, or fastened with large pins, arrows, or even 
dagger-shaped jewels of gold, silver, or metal. 

TRESSES PERFUMED AND POMADED. 

The Egyptians perfumed and pomaded their tresses, and suffered 
them to float in braids or plaits about their necks and down their backs, 
enwreathed with flowers, or gems, or bands, and confined by a fillet round 
the head. They, too, wore false hair, both with their own and in wigs. 

There is in the British Museum a wig said to have been found 
among the ruins of the temple of Isis, at ancient Thebes ; and although 
so many centuries have elapsed since it was fabricated, the hair retains its 
extraordinary hue, the curls their form, and the whole thing its shape 
and form, affording a proof that the hair-dressers of those days possessed 
a secret ours have not, — that of preserving the curl of hair. If we may 
judge, however, from the few authentic descriptions and specimens of their 
art which have come down to us, we should say that they were by no 
means like ours, ambitious of emulating and imitating nature, for they 
seem to have painted, frosted, gilded, silvered, and stiffened the hair 
until its actual identity was lost or destroyed. 

In the early times in England, the style in which women wore 
their hair was very plain. It was dressed very simply, being parted in 
the middle, put back off the face, and then wound up under the hood 
or coif, or cap, or suffered to float at length in curls down the back. 

Elizabeth, Queen of Henry VII., wore her hair thus on the day of her 
marriage, with a " calle of pipes over it." One portrait of Anne Boleyn 
represents her in a similar manner. Jane Gray is pictured with her 
hair parted in the middle and braided over the forehead, while the back 
hair is concealed beneath a veil or cap ; indeed, it was not until the 



STYLES OF WEARING THE HAIR. 401 

reign of Elizabeth that we begin to perceive those elaborate headgears 
which a century later became so ridiculous in size and height. We find 
this " goode Queen " delighting in marvelous structures of curls, frize, 
gems and gold ; in some portraits her hair appears to be folded over a cush- 
ion — we say " her hair," but history strangely belies her if the false 
portion did not far exceed that supplied by nature ; and, indeed, if she 
had not several entire wigs. 

About 1630 the hair began to be worn in a sort of crop, curled in 
short, fine curls over the forehead, and falling in ringlets on the neck — 
a la Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I. In the reign of Charles II 
perukes were very much worn. It was then the fashion for ladies to 
match or contrast their complexions and dresses with wigs of divers hues. 
Perukes came into fashion in England in the latter end of Queen Eliza- 
beth's reign. The making of them furnished employment for decayed 
gentlewomen. So much was hair worn at that period, that false hair 
became high in price, while it was scarcely possible to obtain the requisite 
quantity by any means. Poor women were bribed with large gifts to part 
with their natural tresses ; children were enticed into lonely places and 
robbed of theirs, while even the dead in their graves were despoiled. 

ANCIENT MODE OF DYING THE HAIR. 

The custom of dyeing the hair was also then very prevalent. Stubbs 
says : "If any have haire of her owne naturall growing, which is not 
fine ynough, then they will die it in divers colors." In short, it 
was about this time that Art began to assume the rule over nature. 
France was the originator of the changes of the fashion in wearing 
hair, as she is the inventor of new styles at the present day. Perukes 
were an importation from that country. Stowe says that they were 
introduced in England about the time of the massacre of Paris. 

Randal Holmes, speaking of the costumes and coiffures in 1690, 
mentions this peculiarity : " The ladies wore false locks set on wires to 
make them stand out a distance from the head." In the beginning of the 
next century, 1700, the hair was suffered to grow very long, and either 
curled or allowed to float over the neck in a multitude of wavy ringlets, 
interspersed with ribbons and jewelry, or built up into an edifice of 
curls and frize, and surmounted with feathers, or gauze and flowers, or 
ribbons. 

Fifty years later, the absurd fashion of putting a cushion on the head, 
26 " 



402 STYLES OF WEARING THE HAIR. 

and combing the hair smoothly over it, prevailed. Some of these cushions 
were of a ridiculous height. Sometimes the extreme ugliness and stiff- 
ness of this coiffure was occasionally softened by a few thick curls being 
suffered to wander over the neck and shoulders. 

Powder and pomatum were profusely used in the reign of George II., 
and ladies wore as much false hair as they conveniently could. Various 
stiff and unnatural-looking curls also came in vogue, such as the French 
or sausage-shaped curl, and the German or roll-shaped curl, which had to 
be well frizzled underneath to give it amplitude and roundness. These 
elaborate head-dresses took much time to adjust, and required the skill of 
a hair-dresser to rear them properly ; hence it was impossible that they 
could be done up every day, or even every week ; so ladies slept in them 
— how ? they best know. About the same period, wigs closely resembling 
those of the opposite sex were worn by ladies, the only difference between 
the head of a man and the head of a woman consisting in the former 
terminating behind in a queue toupe, and the latter in a club or fold of 
hair, termed a chignon. 

RINGLETS AND RIBBONS. 

From 1790 to 1800 the use of powder began to be discontinued. 
Wigs and false hair began also to decline, and women were proud of their 
own unsullied locks. The hair was coiled in a profusion of thick ring- 
lets, and these were allowed to fall like a veil over the forehead and face, 
as well as on the neck and shoulders, seldom confined save by a fillet or 
bandeau, which supported a flower or knot of ribbons. 

Crops, in which the hair was parted down the middle and curled all 
around in rows of short curls reaching nearly to the crown of the head, 
or in which the parting was over the temple, and the curls were raised on 
one side, the head almost in a " Brutus," succeeded. Afterwards the back 
hair began to be worn long, tied nearly at the crown of the head, and 
raised in curls or rolls, or folds, at the top of the head, and these backed 
up by a high comb resembling that of a Spanish woman ; while the front 
hair was disposed in French curls, like so many sausages. These in turn 
gave place to elaborate plaits looped down each side of the face, and 
surmounted by bows of plaited hair at the back. Then, in turn, gradu- 
ally stole in the simple bands, the graceful curls, the classic braids of the 
last twelve or fifteen years, as seen in England and the United States 
especially, which combine elegance, neatness and artistic grace. 



STYLES OF WEARING THE HAIR. 403 

In the earlier periods, in France, the women hid away their hair 
beneath their head-dresses, as was the fashion with the earlier queens of 
England. Then came the more elaborate styles and perukes. One 
portrait of Marguerite of Navarre represents her with powdered hair curled 
over the head and sprinkled with diamonds. It was, however, not until 
the beginning of the eighteenth century that those turrets and mountains 
of hair were piled on the heads. Cushions, whalebone, and sundry other 
things were used to train the hair over and support it. 

A head-dress in the reign of Louis XIV. was one of the most becom- 
ing of its kind. It consists of rows of full curls raised one above the 
other to the crown of the head. Between each row is a string of pearls, 
and in the centre of the head-dress a centre-piece is so placed that its 
pendants shall touch the top of the forehead. The long back hair is 
curled and floats over the neck and shoulders, and often has gems or 
flowers carelessly entwined with it. In the reign of Louis XV., the hair 
was combed up from the forehead and all around, and arranged in perpen- 
dicular rows of frizzled French curls ; the whole surmounted by a species 
of ruff, which passes under the chin and there fastens. 

GOOD SENSE AND TASTE. 

During all this period, however, there were many elegant women 
who dared to be " out of fashion," and had the good sense and taste to 
wear their hair naturally in curls, in bands or plaited, wound around the 
head. Occasionally, a royal caprice sanctioned such innovations on the 
aristocratic discomfort of powder, pomatum and periwigs. Various modes 
of wearing the hair succeeded each other rapidly, during the period of the 
French Revolution. Powder and all those pet penchants of the disgraced 
nobility were banished, although the wigs were generally retained. The 
beautiful Madame Tallien, toward the end of the Reign of Terror, and 
immediately after her rescue from prison, introduced the fashion of cutting 
the hair quite short all around, like that of a man, and subsequently | we 
imagine as her hair began to grow again\ the clustering crop of short 
curls. 

Many grotesque and extraordinary styles of head-dresses were intro- 
duced at the beginning of the nineteenth century. There was the 
" Giraffe," a pyramid of rolls or bows of hair, supported by a tall comb 
and heightened by flowers. Then there was the " casque," wherein all 
the hair was combed together, and tied up at the very top ot the head, 



404 STYLES OF WEARING THE HAIR. 

like that of a Chinese woman, and there raised in bows or plaits over wire 
or whalebone foundations , into a kind of reversed pyramid. 

The Spanish, the modern Greeks, and the Swiss modes of wearing 
the hair are familiar to all. The Portuguese and some of the Italians 
plait or braid their hair and then enclose it loosely in a silken net ; or, 
according to Lady Morgan, comb it back behind the ears, and dividing 
into tresses, confine each of these at intervals into beads or ribbons, and let 
them float over the neck and shoulders in a very graceful and picturesque 
fashion. Turkish women, too, divide their hair into innumerable tresses 
or plait them or gem them with coins or jewels. The Americans have a 
similar fashion, but they add masses of false hair to their own, and when 
seated appear half-buried in a heap of partially dishevelled locks. 

CRAPE CUSHION AND OSTRICH FEATHERS. 

A fashionable mode of wearing the hair in the eighteenth century 
is thus described: It was raised from the forehead to the temples and 
brought over a crape cushion, a small portion was confined and curled 
at the top of the head, whence a plume of ostrich feathers fell grace- 
fully over the left side, while a single curl waved on the neck beneath. 
The remaining quantity was divided into ringlets and brought back 
over the right shoulder. Another mode of wearing the hair prevalent 
for a long time in France, was having it slightly curled on the temples, 
and collected behind into distinct tresses by means of bands or clasps of 
various kinds. 

The distinguishing fashion of the ninth and tenth centuries was to 
twist and plait the lower half of the hair, so as to form two separate 
tresses which were turned up on each side of the cheek. In the next 
century the hair on the forehead of women disappeared entirely under the 
bottom of a head-dress peculiar to the time. Subsequently, a tasteful 
mode of dressing the hair, with but few interruptions, seems to have pre- 
vailed till the close of the fourteenth century. 

In the reign of Charles V., the luxurious Isabella of Bavaria, intro- 
duced a remarkable style of head-dress, which was thrown aside about 
1483 for more tastefully arranged head-dresses. These, however, were 
obscured by black veils a few years afterward. 

As before intimated, early in the sixteenth century, the ladies began 
to turn up their hair. Queen Margaret, of Navarre, frizzled her hair at 
both temples and turned it back in front. Various fantastical and ridicu- 



STYLES OF WEARING THE HAIR. *05 

lous modes of wearing the hair prevailed from time to time. At the 
commencement of the last century, the ladies puffed out their hair, and 
used hair-powder to an excessive degree. The French women wore 
their hair short and curled round their faces ; but so loaded with powder 
that it looked like white wool. 

In some satirical songs and poems on costume written in 1755, we 
find the following description of the hair, as then worn : — 

' ' Be her shining locks confined 
In a three-fold braid behind ; 
I4ke an artificial flower, 
Set the fissure off before ; 
Here and there weave ribbon in, 
Ribbon of the finest satin." 

The follies of the head-dresses then worn by the ladies, are thus 
indicated in the u London Magazine " for 1777 : — 

' ' Give Chloe a bushel of horse-hair and wool, 
Of paste and pomatum a pound ; 
Ten yards of gay ribbon to deck her sweet skull, 
And gauze to encompass it round." 

Byron's description of Haidee may be appropriately cited here : — 

" Her brow was overhung with coins of gold, 
That sparkled o'er the auburn of her hair, 

Her clustering hair, whose longer locks were rolled 
In braids behind ; and though her stature were 

Even of the highest, for a female mould, 
They nearly reached her heel." 

In Syria, the ladies decorate their heads with dollars and different 
kinds of money ; sometimes the coins hang down to both ears and must 
be a great weight. This fashion is occasionally practiced in some parts 
of Greece. 

Among the Jewish women a high forehead was considered an indis- 
pensable mark of beauty, and to prevent the hair from growing low, they 
were in the practice of wearing a bandage round the forehead of scarlet 
cloth. Petronius, to give an idea of a perfect beauty, says that her fore- 
head was small, and showed the roots of her hair raised upwards. This 
fashion adopted by the Chinese, was not long ago a modish coiffure in 
France. 

Sterling, in his work on ''Spanish Artists/' says: — Luxuriant tresses 



406 STYLES OF WEARIiNTG THE HAIR. 

were twisted, plaited, and plastered in snch a shape that the fair head 
that bore them resembled the top of a mushroom ; or curled and bushed 
out into an amplitude of fizzle that rivalled the cauliflower wig of an 
Abbe. An ungainly mode also prevailed of parting the symmetry and 
balance of its outline ; of which some wretched portraits in the Spanish 
gallery of the Louvre, impudently ascribed to Velasquez, might be cited 
as examples sufficiently offensive and deterring. " 

The custom of having children's locks braided in long plats, and 
tied up with bows, which was prevalent a few years ago, was not a new 
fashion, for there is a portrait extant of the son of Villiers, first duke of 
Buckingham (1637), with his hair thus ornamented. The fashion for 
young people to cover the hair with a silken net, which was lately preva- 
lent both in England and America, as well as in France, was in vogue 
several centuries ago. Some of the nets were very elegant in form. 

The tribes and people of all nations have some peculiarity in the 
mode of dressing the hair. Whether Ethiopian, Creole, or Indian, women 
have always given much attention to dressing the hair. In many 
instances extreme good taste is displayed, but in the majority of styles 
of wearing hair has not been much admired by the ladies of enlightened 
and civilized nations. In other instances, the head-dresses are uniquely 
fantastical and picturesque ; but we will not now attempt a description of 
them. 





FOR a period much longer than is usual in such matters, the hair 
was, until of late, worn Madonna-like, drawn plain over each 
cheek, after the fashion adopted by the late Queen Victoria of 
England. It was, however, reserved for the regal beauty of an 
allied nation to modify this fashion. The Empress Eugenia introduced a 
style that is equally in good taste with that of the British Queen. It 
accordingly may perhaps be said that with these illustrious ladies for a 
guide, we can hardly deviate from the sounder canons of taste. This idea, 
nevertheless, involves a plausible fallacy. Whatever the prevailing 
fashion, it must necessarily be modified to suit the immense diversity of 
contour in the facial line. The fashion of hair-dressing a few years ago 
was almost identical with the styles of the reign of Louis XIV. 

We have already referred to the odious fashions which prevailed in 
the olden time, and we may here remark that the present tasteful and 
truly picturesque modes of wearing the hair induces us to lay down some 
certain rules for the guidance of all ladies who would wish to arrange 
their hair in an elegant and becoming manner. 

To speak broadly and generally, we cannot be too attentive to lines. 
By forcing the hair upon the cheeks, and squaring it over the forehead. 
we give to the face a sort of pinched hatchet-shape, anything but attrac- 
tive. In truth, the oval should be sedulously preserved by any and by 
all means of art. When the line of beaut)' does not exist, the hair should 
be so humored that the deficiency may not be remarked. Nothing is 
more common than too see a face, which is somewhat too large below, 

407 



408 MODERN METHOD OF HAIR DRESSING. 

made to look grossly large and coarse by contracting the hair on the fore- 
head and cheeks, and then bringing it to an abrupt check ; let the hair 
fall partially over, so as to shade and soften off the lower exuberance. 

To a lady who would preserve her high privilege — the supremacy of 
beauty, the annexed collection of examples of mistakes, defects, etc., will 
prove of extreme value. Confining ourselves still to general observations, 
we may state that some ladies press the hair down close to the face, which 
is to lose the very characteristic of the hair — ease and freedom. "Let the 
locks," says Anacreon, " lie as they like ;" for, poetically at least, the 
Greeks give them life and a will. 

There are some of the beautiful sex, who wear the hair like blinkers, 
which is apt to suggest that they may " shy " on near approach. Let a 
lady's head-dress, whether for a likeness or for daily adornment, be 
arranged as in the portraits of Rembrandt or Titian. Let us subside 
imperceptibly into shadow so as not to exhibit too hard an outline. 
It should not, in fact, be at any time isolated, and by such means out of 
sympathy with all surrounding media. They should at least have the 
merit of floating into the background, and, in their fall, softening the 
sharpness of the contours of dress about them. 

MISTAKES IN HAIR DRESSING. 

We may further remark, that as the human hair forms so striking an 
addition to personal beauty, it will naturally be supposed that the utmost 
ingenuity has been put in practice to increase it in glossy thickness and 
delicate pliancy, to perfect its color, and above all, to arrange it in the 
most tasteful manner ; and yet, by some strange perversion, the most fear- 
ful mistakes have arisen in adapting the hair to the peculiar physiognom- 
ical characteristics. 

How To Dress the Hair. — Light hair is generally most becoming 
when curled. For an oval face, long and thick ringlets are suitable ; but 
if the face is thin and sharp, the ringlets should be light, and not too 
long. Open braids are very beautiful when made of dark hair. A simple 
and graceful mode of arranging the hair, is to fold the front locks behind 
the ears, permitting the ends to fall in a couple of ringlets on either side 
behind. Great care should be taken to part the hair directly in the centre 
of the forehead. Persons with very long, narrow heads may wear the 
hair knotted very low at the back of the neck. 

If the head is long, but not very narrow, the back hair may be drawn 



MODERN METHOD OF HAIR DRESSING. 409 

to one side, braided in a thick braid, and wonnd around the head. When 
the head is round, the hair should be formed in a braid in the middle of the 
back of the head. If the braid is made to resemble a basket, and a few 
curls permitted to fall from within it, the shape of the head is much 
improved. 

FonTAGNES. — By this title is designated a ribbon, which forms an 
important ornament in certain styles of coiffures. The following is its 
origin : Mademoiselle de Fontagne, maid of honor to the Princess Palatin, 
by the favor of Louis XIV., the great duchess, who spent from fifty to a 
hundred thousand crowns a month, was the embodiment of the graces, 
and the leader of the ton. While at a hunting party, the wind having 
disarranged her head-dress, she fastened it with a ribbon, the bows of 
which fell over the forehead. This fashion was immediately adopted by 
all the ladies of the Court, and it passed with the name of Fontagne 
throughout France. 

Suggestions for Grace and Beauty.— We have already given 
the modes of arranging and dressing the hair in all ages of the world. We 
may here present some of the peculiar means by which the grace and 
beauty of females are heightened among many modern nations, whether 
enlightened or uncultivated. 

ORIENTAL CUSTOMS. 

In Asia the hair has always received elaborate attention both by 
male and female. The Persians use the henna to dye their beards. The 
women braid their hair, and dye their eyebrows and eyelids with plum- 
bago. The Bedouin Arabs wear their hair curling in ringlets over their 
shoulders. 

The toilet of the Arab ladies in Egypt is the only thing they study, 
and usually with great success. Their dress is rich, graceful and pictur- 
esque. Long curls and plaits of their beautiful black hair, with orna- 
ments of gold suspended to them, hang over their neck and shoulders. 
They dye the eyelids with a black powder, called kohl, and the inside of 
their hands and nails with a red stuff called henna (the leaves of the 
Egyptian privet). 

" Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere ?" 

A Mussulman gentleman, attached to the Court of Jehangur, writ- 
ing to a friend at Delhi, of the lovely damsels of this beautiful valley. 
after exhausting the powers of language in his description of various 



410 MODERN METHOD OF HAIR DRESSING. 

attractions, among other details says : " The musky and wavey ringlets 
of those heart-ravishing plunderers, turn into a thousand wily snares 
like the links of a chain. When they let loose their flowing tresses from 
their soul-enchanting heads, the point of each hair can captivate a 
thousand hearts. They can draw a thousand Josephs from the well 
where his brethren have immersed him." The Moslem writer seems to 
have paraphrased Pope's lines : 

" Fair tresses, man's imperial race ensnare, 
And beauty draws us with a single hair. ' ' 

The Sindhian Beluchi allow the hair to fall in wild luxuriance over 
their shoulders. The hair is dyed black when it becomes gray. The 
holy characters use the henna plant to impart a red tinge to the beard 
and hair. 

LIKE THE TAIL OF A PEACOCK. 

Among the qualifications of a Singalese belle are that li her hair 
should be voluminous, like the tail of a peacock; long, reaching to the 
knees, and terminating in graceful curls, and her eyebrows should 
resemble the rainbow." 

The ebon hair of the Kandian women is twisted into a knot at the 
back of. the head, where it is confined by gold, silver, or tortoiseshell- 
pins, which are usually most exquisitely chased. This style of arrang- 
ing the hair is adopted in Ceylon, by every native woman, and the coif- 
fure of the hair, at the back of the head, is classically elegant. The 
four hair ornaments of a principal chief's wife, when studded with 
ambers and other gems, have often been valued at $250. 

In Burmah the hair of both sexes is worn long, and tied on the top 
of the head in a knot. The Chinese females wear their head uncovered 
and decorated with beautiful artificial flowers. The Japanese women 
decorate their hair with flowers and ribbons, and use gold and silver 
bodkins to confine the hair. They anoint it with cocoa-nut oil, and plait 
it Chinese-fashion. 

The desert-tribes of Africa dress their ' hair with ghee or butter, 
which in that climate is entirely fluid. I have seen types of Bisharee 
women, in which the style of wearing the hair is pleasing and taste- 
ful. Some Negresses use false tails as well as false locks, as our belles 
do, the long flowing curls being preferred by the sooty Nigertian beauties* 
in spite of such an ornament being unnatural to them. 



MODERN METHOD OF HAIR DRESSING. 411 

The aboriginal ladies of Australia are conspicuous for their head- 
gear. Glowing in grease and red ochre, the ringlets of these ''dark 
angels " are decorated with opossum tails, the extremeties of other 
animals, and the incisor teeth of the Kangaroo 

In New Zealand, married women permit their tresses to flow loosely 
over their shoulders. Oil is employed in beautifying the hair. They 
use two kinds — shark's oil and that obtained from the seeds of a tree 
called a titoki," the odor of both of which oils is very offensive. Young 
girls let their hair fall over the forehead, cutting it a little above the eye- 
brows. Bunches of the white feathers of the albatross or of the gannet, 
and of the beautiful tail feathers of the "luria," which are black tipped 
with white, are worn in the head of both sexes, and form a strong contrast 
to the raven blackness of the hair. 

BLACK, GLOSSY RINGLETS. 

The Oceanic Islanders pay great attention to the adornment of their 
persons. The hair of the females is arranged in short, loose curls, while 
the eyebrows are reduced. The head is ornamented with elegant native 
flowers, sometimes in great profusion, at other times only a few Jessa- 
mine blossoms, or a small wreath, woven in their black, shining ringlets. 
They display great taste in " the use of flowers in adorning their hair. 
They may be frequently seen with garlands of yellow flowers around 
their brows, and flower branches of brilliant scarlet fastened in their hair. 
They dress the hair with a gummy substance obtained from the trunk of 
the cocoanut tree, or in the viscid gum of the bread-fruit tree, which 
gives it a shining appearance, and fixes it as straight as if it had been 
stiffened with rosin. 

The hair of the South Sea Islanders is worn in various fashions, 
according to the taste of the wearer. The natural color of the hair of 
the females can scarcely be ascertained, as they use lime and pigments, 
which make it red, brown, white, or black, according to the taste of the 
individual. They wear a kerchief of very thin gauze-like paper-cloth, 
thrown loosely over the hair, and tied around the head in the form of a 
turban. The color of the hair is usually red or } T ellow, by the universal 
method of powdering it with burnt shells and coral, of which powder they 
usually carry a small gourd or box filled with it about them. 

The Fejees smear their hair with red ochre and grease. The married 
women wear their hair short, the girls rather long. The natives of the 



412 MODERN METHOD OF HAIR DRESSING. 

Wallis Islands and the Navigator's Group, wear their hair long and 
matted, which serves as a protection against the hot snn and heavy rains. 

The natives of the Brittannia Islands take great pains in dressing 
their hair. So with those of the Loyalty Islands and the Isle of Bornobi, 
where they use a variety of perfumes mixed with cocoanut oil. Both 
sexes wear round their heads at feasts and other occasions wreaths of 
beautiful, sweet-scented white and yellow flowers. The female has often 
a few pale blossoms wreathed round her hair, richly contrasting its jetty 
curls. 

Among the natives of South America, the hair is worn in endless 
variety — in some places with singular taste, and in others in a slovenly 
manner. The hair of the Indians of Behring's Strait, is done up in large 
plaits on each side of the head. The edges of the eyelids are blackened 
with a plumbago rubbed up with a little saliva upon a piece of slate. 
This is a very ancient practice, and is often alluded to in the sacred 
writings, and the custom now prevails extensively among Eastern ladies. 
(See 2 Kings ix. 30 ; Jer. iv. 30 ; Ezek. xxiii. 40. Also Eadie's Diction- 
ary of the Bible.) 

MANNER OF TINGEING THE HAIR. 

According to Eadie, the Eastern ladies tinge their hair and the edges 
of their eyelids with a fine black powder moistened with oil or vinegar. 
The manner of doing it in the East is thus described : A smooth, cylin- 
drical piece of ivory or silver, shaped like a quill and about two inches 
long, is dipped into the composition and placed within the eyelashes, 
which are closed over it. This " eye-salve " is made with lead ore and 
other ingredients. 

The Esquimaux women consider it disgraceful to cut off their hair. 
It is only done in deep mourning, or on a resolution never to marry. The 
act of cutting off the hair is of greater importance to an Esquimaux 
woman than that of assuming the veil to an European woman, as she is 
then doomed to perpetual celibacy. Usually, they weave their locks into 
a double ringlet on the crown of the head, and ornament it with ribbons 
and beads. The North American Indians in every part, usually have 
long hair, arranged in various ways ; sometimes flowing loosely, other 
times in braids, and generally ornamented with feathers, ribbons, etc. 

Frequent allusions are made in Scripture to the fashion of wearing 
the hair. It was the custom of the men to wear it cut short, but the. 



MODERN METHOD OF HAIR DRESSING. 



413 



women were required to wear it long. In the time of David, However, the 
hair was considered a great ornament, and the longer it was the more it 
was esteemed. They were in the habit of powdering it with dust of gold. 

The Emperor Commodus is said to have powdered his hair with gold. 
It is singular how old fashions are revived. Not long since some fashion- 
able ladies in Paris reintroduced the practice of wearing powder in the 
hair. Some carried the matter to the extreme of using gold and silver 
powder ; gold for brunettes, and silver for blondes. There were five or 
six marvels in gold and silver powder. They might have been called 
the Danes powdered by Jupiter. The most remarkable of the brunettes 
in gold powder, was a lady of the high financial circle. The silver 
powder was most adorably wedded to the locks of that Spanish blonde, 
Madlle. Montigo, afterwards Eugenia, Empress of the French. 

Lady Mary Wortley Montague thus describes the modern mode of 
wearing the hair by the ladies in the East : — " The hair hangs at full 
length behind, divided into tresses, braided with pearls and ribbons, 
which is always in great quantity. I never saw in my life, so many 
fine heads of hair. In one lady's, I have counted one hundred and ten 
of these tresses, all natural." 

The dancing girls of India pay great attention to dressing their 
hair. Mr. Roberts, when speaking of the Hindoos, says, " When a 
dancing-girl is in full dress, half her long hair is folded in a knot on 
the top of her head, and the other half hangs down her back in thick 
braids." 

Miss Pardoe, in the " City of the Sultan," tells us that, " after taking 
a bath, the slave who attended her spent an hour and a half in dressing 
her hair/' 





Directions for Treating the Hair. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

ERIOUS disorders of the hair predispose to bald- 
ness, ringworm, premature gray hair. Bodily 
infirmity, disease and mental .irritation, sud- 
den change of climate, have an injurious effect 
upon the hair. Many of the morbid states 
and conditions of the hair owe their virulence 
to connection with diseases of the skin. 

The hair of the head may become weak and 
slender, and split at the extremities, from a 
deficient action of the bulb, in consequence of 
debility or impaired vital power, frequently 
connected with disorders of the assimilating 
organs. To preserve the hair and keep it healthy, all 
excessive or extraordinary excitement should be avoided. 
Mental and bodily over-stimulation are injurious. An 
equable temperament of mind and body are essential to 
the health and beauty of the hair. 

Curling the hair in strong or stiff paper has a very injurious effect. 
The more loosely it can be folded or twisted, the better for its free and 
luxurious growth. Soft paper or silk should be used for curlers when 
curling the hair. Those who wear the hair in bands or braids ought to 
twist or fold it up very loosely at night, when retiring to rest. It should 
always be liberated from forced constraints and plaits. It must be well 
combed and thoroughly brushed every morning. After oil has been 
applied, the hair should be nicely smoothed with the palm of the hand. 
414 







DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 415 

To prevent the hair from splitting, and to increase the length and strength. 
the ends should be nipped once a month. 

Many mothers cut the hair of their daughters when young, in the 
idea that it will prevent baldness and cause it to grow longer, thicker and 
more abundant. This is a mistaken notion. Cutting has a tendency to 
injure its beauty and retard its maximum growth. It is quite sufficient 
to tip the ends once a month. 

Hair has turned gray in a single night, from the effects of mental 
emotions and violent passions. Disappointment, bereavement, deep grief, 
intense care, produce devastating effects on the hair. Dr. Wardrop, in his 
work on u Diseases of the Heart," states that the changes which are 
induced by arterial disturbance upon the cutaneous capillaries, are illus- 
trated in a remarkable manner in persons where the hair of the head has 
suddenly become white from increased action of the heart caused by 
violent mental excitement. He knew a lady who was so deeply grieved 
on receiving the intelligence of a great change in her worldly condition, 
that she had her dark hair changed into a silver white in a single night. 

Sir Walter Scott, in " Marmion," says of Mary, Queen of Scots : 

' ' For deadly fear can time outgo, 
And blanch at once the hair." 

M. Bichot tells of a man whose hair turned white in a few hours after 
receiving some dreadful news. Sir Thomas More became gray during 
the night preceding his execution. Lord Byron alludes to this generally 
received opinion in the " Prisoner of Chillon " : 

" My hair is gray, though not with years, 
Nor grew it white 
In a single night, 
As men's have grown from sudden fear." 

Falstaff, in Shakspeare's King Henry IV., says : " Thy father's beard is 
turned white with the news." Madame Campon states that Marie Antoi- 
nette's hair turned white during her transit from Varennes to Paris. 

When the Duchess of Luxembourg was caught making her escape 
during the terrors of the French Revolution and put into prison, it was 
found the next morning afterward that her hair had become perfectly 
white. 

A Spanish officer, distinguished for his bravery, was in the Duke of 
Alva's camp, and an experiment was made by one of the authorities to 
test his courage. At midnight the provost-marshal, accompanied by his 



416 DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 

guard and a confessor, awoke him from his sleep and informed him that, 
by order of the viceroy, he was to be executed, and had only half an hour 
to make his peace with heaven. After he had confessed, he said that he 
was prepared for death, but declared his innocence. The provost-marshal 
at this moment burst into a fit of laughter, and told him that they only 
wanted to try his courage. Placing his hand upon his heart, with a 
ghastly paleness of face, he ordered the provost out of his tent, observing 
that he had done him an evil service. The next morning, to the wonder 
of the whole army, the hair of his head, from having been of a deep-black 
color, had become perfectly white. 

There are many other similar cases on record. Vanquelin is of the 
opinion that this phenomenon is to be attributed to the sudden extrica- 
tion of some acid, as the oxy-muriatic acid is found to whiten black hairs. 
Parr thinks that this accident is owing to the absorption of the oil of the 
hair, by its sulphur, as in the operation of whitening woolen cloths. 

Most persons on sudden exposure to cold, and experiencing any 
emotion of fear or horror, feel a creeping sensation pass over the head. 
This sensation is accompanied by a certain degree of erection of the hair, 
but not to such an extent as to cause it to u stand on end." 

Macbeth says: — 

" What horrid image doth unfix my hair." 

And again : — 

" The time has been — 
* * * and my fell of hair 
Would at a dismal treatise move and stir, 
As life were in it." 

Sir Walter Scott alludes to this :— 

' ' Back from her shoulders streamed her hair 
The locks, that wont her brow to shade, 
Stand up erectly on her head." 

In the Book of Job, at the appearance of a supernatural presence, 
Eliphaz states that the hair of his " head stood up." 

A description is given of the result of terror by Shakespeare in the 
Ghost's speech to Hamlet : — 

* ' I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word 
Would make * * * 
The knotted and combined locks to part, 
And each particular hair to stand on end, 
I4ke quills upon the fretful porcupine." 



DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 417 

There is no doubt of the fact that alarm or fright may cause the hair 
to turn grey, or make it assume a certain degree of erection. The cause 
may be, that sudden fear drives the blood to the heart ; and the extremi- 
ties being left cold ; the skin thus contracts, and the effect is to raise 
the hair. The decay or fall of the hair usually commences at the crown 
or on the forehead and temples. It often takes place from disorder of the 
digestive organs, or of the constitution, or of a local affection of the scalp 
extending to the hair follicles. It indicates premature exhaustion of the 
nervous energy. Premature loss of hair may extend to all parts of the 
body. 

According to Dr. Copeland, the remote causes of baldness are any- 
thing that debilitates or exhausts the system, such as dangerous 
hemorrhages, low fevers, care and disappointments, the depressing 
passions, anxiety of mind, excessive study, the contact of rancid, septic, 
or putrid animal matters with the scalp, and the frequent and prolonged 

use of mercury. 

BALDNESS AND ITS CAUSES. 

Baldness may also be caused by exposure to the sun's rays, by the 
fumes of quicksilver, by the friction of a military cap or helmet, by 
chronic eruptions of the scalp, and by the use of tobacco. The salts of 
sea water, left in the hair, will cause it indirectly ; hence, in sea-bathing, 
ladies, especially, should wear an oil silk cap, else it will be found difficult 
to dry the hair thoroughly. 

Baldness may arise from contraction or relaxation of the skin of the 
head. Strong local irritation, which produces a tendency of blood to the 
part, is frequently efficacious in restoring the hair in bald places on the 
head. Blistering, the application of caustic potash, and an ointment of 
lard and cantharides, have been used with more or less advantage. They 
are, however, dangerous applications, and cannot be generally recom- 
mended. If the bald part becomes red after friction with the hand, there 
is every chance that the skin may become soft and permeable for a renewal 
of the hair. 

It requires unremitting attention to restore hair. The action of the 
blood through the deadened tissue of the skin must be promoted ; the 
tubes relieved of obstruction, and a free secretion of the fluid by which the 
hair is nourished, excited. Where the constitutional powers remain unim- 
paired by age or disease, there is always sufficient vitality in the part to 

ensure activit}^ and renewal of the hair. 

27 



418 DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 

Among all nations a premature loss of hair has been considered 
humiliating and degrading. The loosening of the hair, if neglected, will 
terminate in baldness. Blanching of the hair is mostly common in 
persons of swarthy complexion and black hair. 

Baldness is quite common among men, but seldom seen among 
women. Literary ladies, however, are subject to this defect. Farmers, 
and those who exercise, or pursue manual labor out of doors, usually 
retain their hair ; while the man of science and literature, the merchant, 
the shop-keeper and the factory operative, often become bald. In short, 
all who over-exert the intellectual powers, and neglect or are ignorant of 
the precautions necessary to preserve the hair, are subject to the afflic- 
tion, for such it really is, of baldness or general loss of hair. 

WHITE HAIR AND OLD AGE. 

White and gray hairs are natural to old age, owing to the decay of 
system and the exhaustion of the coloring matter of the hair. There is 
a general dislike to the approach of gray hairs. The prejudice is equally 
shared by male and female. Philosophers consider gray hairs honorable ; 
they are certainly venerable in appearance, but there are few persons who 
would not prefer youth and beauty to age, baldness, or gray hairs, 
however honorable and venerable they may appear. Baldness and gray 
hairs, however, are not unseemly in the aged, although a great blemish in 
the young. 

Gray hairs are not the natural indication of old age. Gray hairs 
have been known in children of six years, while it is common to see 
persons of both sexes, from twenty to twenty-five, looking as though 
seventy winters had passed over them. On the other hand, there have 
been frequent instances of persons over seventy years of age who had 
not a gray hair in their heads. 

It is stated that the people of ancient Troy were so disgusted with 
gray hairs, that they would hold their heads for hours over the steam of 
boiling herbs, in vain attempts to change the color of the hair. A lady 
once said to Douglas Jerrold, " I cannot imagine what makes my hair 
turn gray, unless it is the ' essence of rosemary ' which my maid is in 
the habit of dressing it with." u I should rather be afraid," replied the 
wit and satirist, " that it is the ' essence of time !' (thyme)." 

Men usually begin to get gray about forty, many between thirty and 
forty, and others not until a more advanced age. Meckel considers that 



DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 419 

the hair begins to turn gray at thirty, but Elbe gives forty as the period 
of life at which the change first makes its appearance ; much, however, 
depends on the habits and constitutions of the individuals. 

Fineness and silkiness of the hair are esteemed as beautiful, but 
fineness must not be confounded with neatness. The hair, however, of a 
healthy person is as strong as if it were coarse ; but the thinness of the 
substance from ill health of the body or over-growth, shows a want of 
strength and a tendency to break — the one cannot be mistaken for the 
other. Shaving the head is injurious to the hair, and should never be 
resorted to unless absolutely necessary, as in cases of sickness. Shaving 
the head increases the irritation, on which the loss of hair depends. It 
may cause the hair to grow thicker, but it will induce it to fall earlier 
and more easily. 

DISEASES THAT AFFECT THE HAIR. 

There are several varieties of a disease affecting the hair known as 
" porrigo." All crude vegetables and fruits, saccharine preparations, and 
stimulating substances are to be avoided in this form of disease. It 
originates in a great measure from uncleanliness. A medical man should 
always be consulted in this disease. The disease is as virulent as it is 
contagious. It may be contracted from the thoughtless interchange of 
hats, bonnets, caps, etc., and the use of combs and hair-brushes promiscu- 
ously. When the scalp is inflamed and tender, the blotches should be 
sponged twice a day with warm water, and covered with a light clean 
linen cap. Irritating applications must be avoided. A blister applied to 
the scalp may sometimes remove the complaint, but cannot be relied upon. 
The hair ought to be kept cut close, and the head perfectly clean. This 
with suitable food and open exercise will generally cure the disorder in a 
few weeks. 

The removal of the hair was enjoined by the Levitical law in leprous 
indications. The long hair of* persons who neglect it frequently becomes 
matted or inextricably interlaced. M. Cazenave, physician to the hospital 
of St. Cours, Paris, in his treatise, as translated by Dr. Burgess, gives the 
following general directions for the managemeut of the hair: 

u Pass a fine-tooth comb, at regular intervals every twenty- four hours, 
through the hair, in order to keep it from matting or entangling ; separ- 
ate the hairs carefully and repeatedly, so as to allow the air to pass 
through them for several minutes ; use a brush that will serve the double 



420 DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 

purpose of cleansing the scalp and gently stimulating the hair bulbs. 
Before going to bed it will be desirable to part the hair evenly, so as to 
avoid false folds, or what is commonly called turning against the grain, 
which might even cause the hair to break. Such are the usual and 
ordinary requirements as to the management of the hair. There is, on 
the other hand, a class of persons who carry to excess the dressing and 
adornment of the hair, especially those who are gifted with hair of the 
finest quality. 

" Thus, females are in the habit of dragging and twisting the hair, 
so as to draw the skin with it ; the effect is to break the hairs and fatigue 
the scalp, and finally to alter the bulb itself. The fine-tooth comb is also 
too freely used, especially when the hair is divided — a part that the most 
particular attention seems to be bestowed upon. These separations, and 
the back of the neck whence the hair is drawn, in females, towards the 
crown of the head, are parts which first show signs of decay, or falling 
off of the hair." 

HYGIENIC TREATMENT. 

In a hygienic point of consideration, as intimated elsewhere, the 
dress of the hair best adapted for females, especially for young girls, is 
that which keeps the hair slightly raised, drawn as little as possible, 
carefully smoothed, and arranged in large bands, so as to admit the hair 
to permeate ; to unfold it morning and evening, and brush it lightly, but 
carefully ; in a word, to dress it in such a manner as will not require 
dragging or twisting, but leave it free. If fashion requires it to be tied 
and drawn, and the individual yields to the mode, it should be unfolded 
morning and evening, and allowed to hang loose for half an hour. 

Long, luxuriant and glossy tresses are the admiration of every 
person of taste and sense. A fine head of hair is the pride and joy of 
every woman's heart. The more naturally it can be worn, the better, not 
only for its preservation, but its elegance and richness. 

In the language of that authority, Miss M. A. Yost, we may well 
exclaim : " How ignorant, how indifferent are we often to the nature, the 
properties and history of the most common things which surround us. 
The beautiful gift of bountiful nature, the human hair, we see and admire, 
and we weave it into all the fantastical forms dictated by the capricious 
goddess, fashion ; but we seldom pause to reflect upon it, to marvel at its 
growth and beauty, to mark how it obeys the laws of vegetation, how it 



DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 421 

flourishes for a time, reaches to a certain length, falls and is replaced by 
a succession of new shoots, and eventually decays from age.'' 

" Truly," continues the same writer, " the hair is one of the crown- 
ing beauties bestowed by nature on human beings. What poet has 
neglected to sing its praise ? All hues have been celebrated, from the 

1 L,assie wi' the sunny locks,' 

of Allan Cunningham, to the aged man whom Crabbe describes, with 

( Those white locks thinly spread 
Round the bald polish of that honored head.' ' ' 

u To women particularly is hair an adornment. Take that from her, 
and she loses one of her greatest ornaments. Surely Venus herself 
would cease to be Queen of Beauty if she had her head shaved. And 
how easy fashion has been, throughout all ages of which we have any 
record, with female tresses ; how she has twisted and tortured, disfigured 
and confined them ; dyed, variegated and blanched them ; greased, stiff- 
ened and frizzled them ! In short, how she has done her best in some 
portion of every age, to nullify their graceful effects and convert that 
which should have been a beauty into a deformity. 

CLEANLINESS AND FRICTION. 

u Much has been said relative to the treatment of the hair, and oils, 
balms, pomatums, creams and greases have been recommended without 
number for its nourishment and preservation. Cleanliness, however, and 
friction are its best stimulants and improvers. We do not advocate the 
use of sharp-pointed, scratching combs ; neither do we approve of those 
very hard brushes, with which some persons delight to torture themselves ; 
but a moderately stiff brush, with bristles from about three-quarters of an 
inch in length, will cleanse the hair well and also produce a warm glow 
on the skin ; and this should be well used morning and evening every 
day, and then the hair polished with a softer brush. 

Cold water is the best wash for the hair. Soaps generally contain 
too much alkali and pungent matter to act beneficially on the skin of the 
head ; but boiling water poured on bran, left to stand until cool and 
then well-strained off, washes long hair very nicely. If the hair has a 
tendency to fall off, the skin of the head may be brushed with a small, 
hardish brush dipped in honey-water, or rosemary-water, or distilled vine- 



422 DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 

gar, morning and night for a few days, and then brnshed with a hair- 
brush until it glows." 

To the foregoing judicious remarks of Mrs. Youat, little more need 
be added. The hair should be kept scrupulously clean by brushing, etc., 
but never be roughly handled. By improper treatment the hair may be 
irretrievably injured. Brushes applied to the skin of the head should be 
soft and pliable than otherwise, but stronger ones may be employed for the 
long hair. From the respectable perfumers excellent lotions may be 
obtained which are effectual in removing scurf and cleaning hair, while 
well-prepared vegetable oils may be advantageously employed in promot- 
ing growth and gloss. 

Every people, however savage, have had their own peculiar greases 
or oily preparations for the hair. The vegetable oils are always to be 
preferred. Animal fat, with some few exceptions, is exceedingly injuri- 
ous to the hair, being often the cause of scrofulous disease of the scalp. 
Fluid vegetable oils should be selected as the best means for obviating a 
deficiency of oleaginous products in the cells of the hair-tubes. 

LOCKS STRAIGHT AND FLACCID. 

Ladies often wonder why it is that their hair loses its curl and 
becomes straight and flaccid. The secret of this is, it readily imbibes moist- 
ure from both the skin and the atmosphere, when the natural secretion of 
the lubricating fluid in the tubes of the hair is impeded ; and, by degrees, 
the latter becomes coarse, harsh and scurfy. Obviously, therefore, the 
hair must be supplied naturally or artificially with its necessary nourish- 
ment, and pure fluid vegetable oil is the only desirable application for 
this purpose. It should be well initiated into the roots of the hair, as 
well as throughout the general texture, but it should not be lavishly 
employed, as in that case it would become a cloy. 

As before remarked, every people employ some kind of oil for the 
hair. The Esquimaux and the Greenlanders patronize train and seal oil. 
The South American fair ones of the Amazon and Orinoco, use the more 
delicate turtle oil. Others use the fat obtained from the alligator. The 
Zealanders adopt shark's oil. In the South of Europe, and throughout 
the Mediterranean, olive oil is in constant request. Cocoa-nut oil is 
much used in the West Indies. In the Pacific Islands, cocoa-nut oil and 
castor oil are used. The oils of the palm, butter tree, and earth-nut, are 
vague among the African people. 



DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 423 

Cleopatra was the first to lead the fashion in bear's grease. The fat 
of ducks, moles and vipers has not survived the age of William and 
Mary, while beef's marrow and hog's lard play a distinguished part in 
the hair dresser's laboratory, and greatly economize the destruction of 
Bruin. We are told that the Typee girls devote much of their time in 
arranging their fair and redundant tresses. They bathe several times a 
day, and anoint their hair with cocoa-nut oil, after each ablution. Mel- 
ville observes that this oil is fit for the toilet of a queen. Mrs. Osgood, 
our American poetess, thus sings in praise of this sunny clime : 

" The glowing sky of the Indian isles 
Lovingly over the cocoa-nut smiles, 
And the Indian maiden lies below 
Where its leaves their graceful shadows throw ; 
She weaves a wreath of the rosy shells 
That gem the beach where the cocoa dwells ; 
She binds them into her long black hair 
And they blush in the braids like rosebuds there. 
Her soft brown arm and her graceful neck, 
With those ocean blooms she joys to deck. 
O, wherever you see 
The cocoa-nut tree 
There will a picture of beauty be !" 

No doubt enough of the cocoa-nut oil would answer a valuable pur- 
pose in beautifying the hair, but the oils which hold a pre-eminence 
are a combination of the choicest vegetable products scientifically pre- 
pared, so as to conduce to the preservation and improvement of the hair. 

Generally speaking, women of nervous and lymphatic temperament 
have usually less abundant hair than those of a sanguine or bilious tem- 
perament. The environment of the subject greatly affects the hair. 
Anxiety and mental trouble, ill health, especially, and disorder of the 
circulation or of the nervous system will often cause the hair to fall out. 

Women who are very hard students, who are fretful and given to 
sitting up late at night, will in time surely weaken the hair, which thins 
rapidly in such circumstances. In infancy and early childhood the hair 
is generally pale in color, soft, thin, and very flexible. As the child 
grows older the hair gradually becomes more abundant, darker, coarser 
and less flexible. 

In healthy youth and maturity the hair reaches its state of greatest 
luxuriancy and beauty, and if properly cared for it should continue thus 



424 DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 

for many years in a nearly stationary condition. Unfortunately, it is 
the exception for the hair to remain full ancT luxuriant in growth on the 
heads of American women after they reach forty-five years of age. Gen- 
erally speaking, before forty the hair very gradually becomes thinner and 
weaker and slowly loses its gloss and some of its color. 

■This condition is produced by the decreasing vigor of the circulation 
of the scalp, and only within the last few years has any treatment been 
devised that would succesfully ward off the attenuation consequent on 
the progress and wear and tear of life. Scalp massage, by restoring the 
vigor of the circulation, has imparted new life to the hair, and the bene- 
fits derived from this system are so marvelous as to almost appear 
miraculous. 

It must me thoroughly understood by every one that the vigor, 
luxuriance and beauty of the hair positively correspond to the state of 
health of the scalp from which it grows. So long as the scalp is soft 
and thick and the blood is kept circulating with healthy vigor through 
its vessels the hair glands and capsules have ample space to exist and 
work in, and ample material in the shape of healthy arterial blood out of 
which to elaborate their secretions. 

DECLINE OF THE HEALTH OF THE SCALP. 

So long as the health and vigor of the scalp can be maintained the 
hair can be kept luxuriant and beautiful, But just as soon as the vigor 
in the circulation of the scalp begins to decline, whether from age, 
disease, neglect or other causes, it suffers gradual attenuation. The 
functions of the hair bulb are impeded, and as the declining process con- 
tinues they are finally arrested altogether. When the circulation is only 
impeded the result is weak, thin hair. When the circulation is arrested 
baldness follows. 

When the growth of the hair is weak or defective, the causes having 
been explained, it naturally follows that the cure for this condition can 
only be obtained by a process which will promote the healthy action of 
the skin of the scalp, by increasing the vigor of the circulation of the 
blood through its minute vessels. 

Scalp massage alone will effect this stimulation. It must not, how- 
ever, be forgotten that in order to keep the hair and scalp in a healthy 
state both must be kept scrupulously clean. The most extraordinary 
delusions and superstitions concerning the hair are those which insist 



DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 425 

that the skin of the scalp and that the hair itself require no washing and 
should never come in contact with soap and water. Now, there is no 
more logical reason for not washing the hair than there would be for not 
washing the face or hands. The idea that all the rest of the body 
require soap and water, with friction, to keep it clean, except the hair and 
scalp, is certainly fantastic. 

It has been observed that black or dark-haired subjects turn gray 
earlier than those with fair hair. The reason for this is that the supply 
of the iron pigment usually fails before that of the sulphur. If readers 
will reflect for a moment on the cause of gray hair, they must realize 
that to attempt to restore a color which has been lost or changed through 
the failure of the pigment of the hair bulb by an external wash or 
pomade is absurd. 

To give yourself massage seat yourself in a comfortable low chair 
opposite a mirror. Take your hair down, shake it out, and part it in the 
middle. Brush it carefully and well. Brush always off from the face, 
never from the back of the head toward the face. Now place the tips of 
the fingers at the side of the head. Brace the fingers by pressure of the 
thumb, which should be firmly placed just back of the ear. Press the 
fingers well into the skin of the scalp and make a wheel-like motion with 
them. Move the hands all over the head, making this rotary movement. 

THE SHUTTLE MOVEMENT. 

Rest for a few moments, as the movements are fatiguing to the arms. 
And tired hands will not give a proper treatment. Next make what is 
called the shuttle movement. Press the fingers well into the scalp. 
Move the fingers back and forth shuttle fashion. Make this movement 
all over the head. Apply a hair tonic, if one is required, while making 
this movement. Now making the chucking movement, place one hand 
on the brow, the other at the back of the head. Press the finders well 
into the scalp and with a sharp movement bring the hands toward each 
other. Continue all over the head in this manner. 

There are other movements in scalp massage which have been 
described, but these are sufficient for the person who is to give herself a 
treatment. Remember that the essentials in the management of the hair 
are cleanliness and friction. Cleanliness, I repeat, is only another way 
of speaking of soap and water. The hair should be shampooed at the 
very least once a week. 



426 DIRECTIONS FOR TREATING THE HAIR. 

So many women make a perfect bugbear of this very simple office 
that I am glad to be able to give a suggestion to the readers of this work 
which may do away with the dislike entertained for the shampooing 
process. Ordinarily the woman who has her hair shampooed or performs 
that service for herself is forced to bend her head over a bowl or tub while 
the shampoo is being rubbed into the scalp and the rinsing process 
going on. 

By the time the operation is completed she is neck weary and 

frequently experiences a sensation of vertigo which is most distressing. 

And, when at last she is allowed to raise her head, she says with a sigh 

of thankfulness : " Thank goodness, that is over." If you are able to 

go to a hair dresser who has all the modern appliances, the shampooing 

process is not so tiresome, but the best way and the least troublesome, 

and by far the most thorough in its results, is to take a shampoo in your 

tub. 

HOW TO SHAMPOO THE HAIR. 

Draw the water exactly as for a full bath, and get into the tub. 
Have the shampoo mixture ready and rub it thoroughly into the scalp. 
Then take a large jug or pitcher, which should be at hand, and rinse the 
shampoo out of the hair. You can keep filling the pitcher from the 
faucets, getting water any temperature you choose, and without any 
inconvenience can thoroughly rinse the hair. Twist the hair up on the 
head, fasten it with a hairpin, let fresh water run, and take a quick all- 
over sponge, rinse and get out and dry the body ; put on a loose bathing 
gown or wrapper, and proceed to dry the hair at leisure. 

A shampoo taken in this w T ay is much more thorough than any other 
process. It enables one to have oceans of water, and nothing gives the 
hair the same gloss and beauty when dry as thorough rinsing. I am 
aware that this is a somewhat unconventional mode of procedure, but it 
is the popular one wherever it is known in all circles. As I have said 
before, in ordinary cases the hair should be washed at least once a week, 
but if the head be much exposed to dust, or the subject perspires very 
freely, it should be shampooed every third or fourth day. 





CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

BEAUTIFUL set of teeth is one in which the teeth are 
compact and regular, and smooth, and pearly white, and 
in which the front ones, at least, are moderately small. 
The influence which the teeth are capable of exercising 
on the personal appearance is universally known and 
admitted. The teeth have formed especial objects of 
attention, in connection with the toilet and cosmetic arts, from almost the 
earliest ages of the world to the present time. History and tradition, 
and the researches of archaeologists among the remains of the prehistoric 
periods of the nations of the East, show us that even dentistry may 
trace back its origin to a date not very long subsequent to the " confusion 
of tongues." 

The ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, and Persians used artificial teeth, 
and were familiar with the use of gold and enamel for filling decayed 
ones. Descending to later, but still remote periods, we find that the 
ladies of ancient Sicily and Rome used both artificial teeth and " stop- 
ping," and that the polished Romans generally were liberal patrons of 
tooth-cosmetics. 

Albucasis, the Arabian physician who flourished in the early part of 
the twelfth century, made artificial teeth of ox-bones. We are told that 
the ancient Welsh took particular care of their teeth, and kept them 
perfectly white by frequently rubbing them with a stick of green ha 
and a woolen cloth. To prevent their premature decay, they scrupulously 
avoided acid liquids, and invariably abstained from all hot food and drink. 

427 



428 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

In olden times the removal of the teeth, or some of them, was occa- 
sionally ordered by way of persecution or punishment. It is said that 
King John once demanded ten thousand marks from a Jew at Bristol ; 
and, on his refusal, ordered one of his teeth to be drawn every day until 
he should comply. The Jew lost seven teeth, and then paid the sum so 
unjustly demanded of him. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, 
one Matthew Flint, dentist, received from Richard III, a grant of six- 
pence per day on condition of his drawing the teeth of the poor of 
London gratuitously. 

STAINING THE TEETH OP BOYS AND GIRLS. 

Europeans pride themselves on teeth of pearly whiteness ; but many 
Asiatic nations regard them as beautiful only when of a black color. 
The Chinese, in order to blacken them, chew what is popularly called 
" betel,'' or " betel-nut," a common masticatory in the East. The Siamese 
and the Tonquinese do the same, but to a still greater extent, which 
render their teeth as black as ebony, or more so. As the use of the 
masticatory is generally not commenced until a certain age, the common 
practice is to stain the teeth of boys and girls with a strong preparation 
of it, on the former attaining the age of ten or twelve, and the latter, 
twelve or fourteen. The process occupies three or four days, during 
which time they take only liquids, for fear of being poisoned by the 
stain or pigment if they swallowed food masticated by their newly-dyed 
teeth. 

Every one in Siam and Tonquin undergoes this dyeing operation, as 
even the humblest and poorest regard it as a disgrace to grow up to man- 
hood or womanhood with teeth as white as those of dogs, goats, and 
elephants. The Malays and Sumatrans commence chewing betel at an 
earlier age, which renders the above process of dyeing the teeth unneces- 
sary. The ladies of Turkey, Persia, and other Oriental countries, 
frequently stain their teeth red or black, but in a simpler or more expe- 
ditious way than is practiced by the nations just referred to. 

Of these it may be remarked, that the front teeth are framed for 
cutting or dividing ; the canine teeth for seizing or tearing ; and the back 
teeth for bruising or crushing. The short and but moderately strong 
jaws of man, in which they are set, do not admit of the ready mastication 
of herbage or raw grain, or the devouring of flesh that has not been 
previously prepared by cooking. 






CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 429 

The development and structure of the teeth are singular and 
complicated : — 

The first teeth, or milk teeth, beginning with che incisors, usually 
commence appearing a few months after birth, but occasionally earlier. 
Sometimes, though rarely, children are born with one or more of them. 
At two years, the whole of the deciduous teeth are cut. After the seventh 
year, these are gradually shed and replaced by others — the eight decidu- 
ous incisors being replaced by eight permanent ones ; the four deciduous 
canine teeth, by four permanent ones ; and the eight deciduous molars, 
by eight bycuspids or Premolars. Of the twelve true or posterior molars, 
which are permanent, and not deciduous or replaced by other teeth, like 
those previously mentioned, there are four — one on each side of both 
jaws — that usually make their appearance at about four and a half years ; 
four more at about nine years ; the last four, between the sixteenth and 
eighteenth year, but frequently not until the twentieth year, and some- 
times even later. 

PERIOD OF TEETHING A TRYING ONE. 

The period of dentition or teething is often a trying one to both the 
infant and the nurse, and particularly to the parents; but the trouble and 
danger attending it frequently arise and are very generally increased by 
improper treatment, or by the neglect of those matters which are at all 
times essential to health, and more especially so during infancy. At this 
time, excessive cleanliness, the use of warm, dry clothing, absolute free- 
dom from tight bandages and pressure, with fresh air without undue 
exposure, and thorough ventilation without draughts, abundance of good 
nursing exercise and of u crawling on the carpet," and frequent warm 
baths, will be found more than usually advantageous. 

Indeed, one of our highest medical authorities asserts that the last, 
without other treatment, are often sufficient to subdue the most distress- 
ing convulsions of this period, and the most obstinate diarrhoea ; whilst 
in no case can they do harm, but only good. Above all things, the nurs- 
ing mother, or wet-nurse, must be scrupulously regardful of her own 
health, always remembering that improper diet or indulgences, irregular 
habits, exposure, mental disquietude and the like, exert, through her, a 
baneful action on the infant, though she may suffer little from them 
herself. By attention to all these points, dentition will generally inter- 
fere but little with the health of the infant; strong and regular teeth 



430 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

will be formed and the foundation laid for a beautiful and durable set in 
after-life. 

During childhood and youth the teeth demand particular attention, 
as at this period they are very easily affected by violence, being meddled 
with and improper use, by which their beauty, regularity and strength 
may be permanently impaired. They are also liable, from these causes, 
nd some times without any apparent cause, to cross or press on each 
other, by which they are forced out of their natural positions, and grow 
unequal and irregular. 

In such cases, dentists frequently insert ligatures or wedges of gold, 
platinum, silk or India-rubber, between the teeth, to cause them to grow 
equal and regular. Sometimes even a supernumerary tooth or two will 
spring up behind the regular set, forcing the tooth or teeth in front out of 
their places. Here the proper treatment is generally the removal of the 
" interloper " as soon as possible ; but, if the tooth in front of it is feeble 
and much displaced, it is often better to remove it instead of the other ; 
when the former, during growth, will gradually fill up the vacant position 
in the gum. 

COMMON NEGLECT OF THE TEETH. 

The preservation of the teeth is an object of the utmost importance; 
since, besides their immediate connection with the personal appearance, 
their integrity is highly subservient to health, owing to their use in prepar- 
ing the food for the subsequent process of digestion. Unfortunately, 
the teeth are either wholly neglected or very improperly treated by the 
mass of mankind , and even those who are very attentive to their teeth, 
and who highly value their beauty, direct their effects mainly to rendering 
the front teeth white, because these are seen when we speak, smile or eat. 

A thought respecting their permanent preservation scarcely arises 
until their decay commences and warns them of their approaching failure 
or loss. Yet the preservation of the teeth and the permanent promotion 
of their beauty are nearly synonymous terms. The subject deserves the 
serious consideration of every one. 

The rational management of the teeth consists essentially in thor- 
ough cleanliness, and the avoidance, as much as possible, of the use of 
beverages, condiments and articles of food generally, that exert an injuri- 
ous action on them, or on the gums. Among the substances referred to 
are all those of a sour, or acid, or corrosive nature — including acid piquant 






CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 431 

sauces, pickles, sour fruits and preserves, salads seasoned with vinegar, 
and the like ; to which also must be added medicines containing acids or 
acid-salts, or any salt in which a strong acid is united to a weak base. 
When such articles are eaten or taken, it is advisable either to clean the 
teeth, or to rinse the mouth with pure water as soon afterwards as possible. 
The use of hot food and liquids is also very prejudicial to the teeth 
and gums ; and this more so in youth and early maturity than in after 
life. Overtaxing the teeth, and frequently exerting them on hard, tough 
or gritty substances, or in biting substances so thin or slender that their 
cutting edges are brought into immediate contact and act on each other, 
are other practices which rapidly tend to injure them and wear them out. 
Allowing particles of animal or vegetable food to remain in the interstices 
of the teeth, or in cracks or hollows in them, is particularly objectionable ; 
as the first, from the heat of the mouth, in a short time generate a rancid 
acrimony, and the other an acidity, which not merely render the breath 
offensive, but rapidly corrode the teeth. Such particles should be removed 
by the toothpick immediately after every meal. 

BAD HABITS OF BREATHING. 

Keeping the lips apart and breathing through the mouth, instead of 
the nose, and particularly sleeping with the mouth open, are habits which 
are very prejudicial to the teeth and gums. In this way the mouth forms 
a trap to catch the dust and gritty particles floating in the atmosphere, 
which soon mechanically injure the enamel of the teeth by attrition ; the 
saliva, by the evaporation of its aqueous particles, becomes inspissated, 
and, by the action of the oxygen of the air, its ptyaline suffers decompo- 
sition, its natural alkalinity is lost, and it grows slightly acid and corro- 
sive. Particles of matter accumulated around the necks and in the cracks 
and interstices of the teeth, from the same exposure, suffer rapid decom- 
position, tainting the breath as it passes through and over them. 

Further, the membranes covering the gums and lining the lips, mouth 
and fauces, at the same time lose their natural delicacy and healthy char- 
acter, growing unpleasantly parched and stiff; so that speech becomes 
difficult and imperfect until the parts are again lubricated with saliva by 
the action of the tongue. It is on this account that snuff-taking is so 
injurious to the teeth. Snuffers generally breathe through the mouth 
while awake, and uniformly do so when asleep. Besides which, snuffing 
acts injuriously by reducing the powers of the stomach. 



432 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

The nostrils are the natural channels of respiration in man and in 
most other mammals. Breathing through the mouth, when avoidable, is 
therefore unnatural ; and, being unnatural, must also be unfavorable to 
health. Besides exposing those who do so to many inconveniences, partic- 
ularly increased liability to infectious diseases, it gives a more or less 
vacant expression to the features, which, in exaggerated cases, is some- 
times almost idiotic. 

On the subject of cleanliness in connection with the teeth and mouth, 
it may be said that the mouth cannot be too frequently rinsed during the 
day, and that it should be more particularly so treated after every meal. 
Pure cold water is the best for the purpose. It not only cleans the teeth 
and mouth, but exerts a tonic action on the gums, which warm water, or 
even tepid water, is deficient in. When cold water cannot be tolerated, 
tepid water may be employed, the temperature being slightly lowered 
once every week or ten days, until cold water can be borne. 

ANTISEPTICS RECOMMENDED. 

The addition of a few drops of spirit of camphor, or essence of 
camphor to the water thus employed, is highly serviceable ; as camphor, 
by its antiseptic and anodyne properties, and its odor, tends to arrest 
decay, allay tenderness and pain, and correct the fcetor of the breath. 
Where convenience permits, it is advisable to clean the teeth night and 
morning, and after dinner, or the principal meal of the day, When, as is 
frequently the case with the great mass of mankind, the only opportuni- 
ties of attending to the teeth are those at the morning toilet and before 
retiring to rest, these should be taken advantage of for that purpose. 

At all events, every one who abhors a foetid breath, rotten teeth, and 
the toothache, would do well to thoroughly clean his teeth at bedtime, 
observing to well rinse the mouth with cold water on rising in the morn- 
ing, and again in the day once, or oftener, as the opportunities occur. 
With smokers, the use of the tooth-brush the last thing at night is almost 
obligatory if they value their teeth, and wish to avoid the unpleasant 
flavor and sensation which teeth fouled with tobacco-smoke occasion in 
the mouth on awaking in the morning. 

The operation of cleaning the teeth, like all other operations of the 
toilet, should be carefully performed, and in as effective a manner as 
possible. The mode in which it is commonly done is worse than useless, 
and is not infrequently very injurious to the teeth and gums. To do it 



CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 133 

well and thoroughly, the action of the tooth-brush should not be confined 
to the visible portion of the front teeth, but every portion of both the 
upper and under teeth, back and front, and on the inner as well as the 
outer sides, and the crowns, should receive attention. Without all this 
be done, the use of the brush can effect little in the way of thorough 
cleanliness, correction of the odor of the breath, and the preservation of 
the teeth. 

Further, great care should be taken to avoid violence to the gums. 
If these bleed, or feel sore, real injury is done them by the operation, 
notwithstanding the assertions of certain interested dentists to the 
contrary. In such cases it will generally be found that the brush has 
been clumsily applied, or is of a coarse inferior quality, or that the tooth- 
powder, or other cosmetic used with the brush, is of an acrid or gritty 

nature. 

RINSING THE MOUTH. 

Personal attention to the teeth should commence in early life. As 
soon as the permanent teeth begin to appear, a child should be taught to 
rinse its teeth and mouth with water after every meal, or two or three 
times daily. In another twelvemonth or two years, or as soon as it is 
capable of properly using a tooth-brush, one should be given it, and at 
the same time it should be instructed in the mode of employing it, and 
the importance of doing so. A little later, and some simple tooth-powder 
may be added to its little collection of toilet requisites. Some watching, 
and further instruction may be necessary ; but by the time early youth 
commences, attention to the teeth will have grown into a pleasurable 
habit which will cling to the individual for life. 

As to tooth-powders or tooth-pastes to be used with the brush, little 
need be said here, as I shall revert to the subject again. The simplest 
are the best. Plain camphorated chalk, with or without a little finely 
powdered pumice-stone or burnt hartshorn, is a popular and excellent 
tooth-powder. It is capable of exerting sufficient friction under the brush 
to ensure pearly whiteness of the teeth without injuring the enamel ; 
whilst the camphor in it tends to destroy the animalcula in the secretions 
of the month, whose skeletons or remains constitute, as we shall presently 
see, the incrustations popularly called "tartar'' or " fur." 

Powdered Castile-soap forms another simple tooth-powder which, 
besides other excellent qualities, perhaps exceeds all other substances in 
its powers of destroying the minute being just referred to, and removing 
28 



434 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

the tartar resulting from their presence. Recently burnt charcoal, in 
very fine powder, is another popular and excellent tooth-powder which, 
without injuring the enamel, is sufficiently gritty to clean the teeth and 
remove the tartar from them, and possesses the advantage of also remov- 
ing the offensive odor arising from rotten teeth, and from decomposing 
organic matter. 

The charcoal of the heavy, hard woods, as lignum vitae, box-wood, 
oak, are the best ; and these, as to quality, range in the order here given. 
Still more valuable, as a dentifrice, is areca-nut charcoal, which, besides 
possessing the properties of the other vegetable charcoals in an eminent 
degree, has invaluable ones peculiar to itself, as noticed in the following 
chapter : The substances and preparations mentioned above, or mixtures 
of them, variously oramatised and disguised, form the leading and more 
valuable portion of the advertised dentifrices now used in fashionable 
life. 

SUBSTANCES [TO BE AVOIDED. 

Besides tooth-powders and tooth-pastes, which are used with the 
tooth-brush, there are other preparations which are employed as tooth- 
cosmetics and mouth-cosmetics. 

In the choice of tooth-cosmetics the greatest care should be taken to 
avoid those which contain gritty, acrid, or irritating substances, as the 
two first act injuriously on the teeth, and the last, on the gums. 

Some dentists, and some persons in imitation of them, in order to 
whiten the teeth, rub their surfaces with hydrochloric acid, somewhat 
dilute ; but the practice is a most dangerous one, which, by a few repeti- 
tions, will sometimes utterly destroy the enamel, and lead to the rapid 
decay of all the teeth so treated. Should the teeth be much discolored, 
and ordinary tooth-powder prove ineffective, a little lemon-juice, used 
with the brush, will generally render them perfectly white. It should 
only be employed occasionally, and the mouth should be well rinsed with 
water immediately afterwards. 

A little of the pulp of an orange, used in the same way, is also very 
effective and safe ; as are also ripe strawberries, which may be either 
rubbed on the teeth with the fingers, or applied with the brush. The last 
form, perhaps, the very best natural dentifrice known. Besides possess- 
ing singular power in whitening and cleaning- the teeth, and rapidly 
removing tartar, they destroy the offensive odor of rotten teeth, and 



CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 435 

impart an agreeable fragrance to the breath. Oranges and strawberries 
are also useful in removing fur from the tongue. 

The importance of a judicious attention to the teeth, in connection 
with health, cleanliness, and personal comfort and appearance, cannot be 
too often alluded to and enforced. Yet, notwithstanding its importance, 
there is, perhaps, no part of our toilet duties which are so generally 
neglected, or so carelessly performed, as those relating to the teeth. 

The consequences of the careless performance, or the neglect, of this 
really necessary personal duty, are not long in being developed. Passing 
over the degradation of the other features, the offensiveness of the breath, 
often to a degree which renders the individual uncompanionable, and 
the unfavorable impression which, like other marks of uncleanliness, 
they convey of the taste and habits of their possessor, as the immediate 
effects of habitually neglected and dirty teeth, let us look at the more 
distant, but not less certain ones : — 

CAUSES OP PREMATURE DECAY. 

It is a well-known fact that dirty teeth are very liable to premature 
decay. The decomposing animal and vegetable matter accumulated 
between and about them, and particularly around the necks or throats, 
rapidly corrodes them, and gradually impairs their vitality. The enamel 
suffers. It becomes brittle, cracks, and here and there chips off, exposing 
the inner portion of the tooth, in which decay immediately commences. 
The edges of the incisors, and the points and tubercles in the crowns of 
the molars, gradually give way, by which the former teeth lose their 
efficiency as cutters, and the latter as grinders. 

The gums suffer, lose their adhesion, and shrink back, exposing the 
necks of the teeth to every unfavorable influence. Minute cracks in the 
enamel widen into fissures, and places where it is chipped or worn off 
become unpleasantly rough or scratchy to the tongue. The depressions 
in the crowns of the teeth grow deeper and deeper, as if the parts were 
contracting or shrinking on themselves. Soon caries in one or more of 
the teeth actively sets in, there is rapid loss of substance, the nerve 
becomes exposed to the air and cold, violent twinges of toothache follow, 
attention is directed to the parts, and surprise is expressed at the discov- 
ery of a hollow or rotten tooth. 

The same thing occurs after a time with another tooth ; and again, 
at intervals, until several are destroyed or rendered useless. A few years 



436 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

later, and several teeth are probably missing — some have been removed 
by trie dentist — others have crumbled away or broken off, and, perhaps, 
only their stumps remain, to be sources of pain and annoyance on every 
subsequent exposure to cold or attack of a fit of dyspepsia. In another 
five or six years, more are missing or have become useless, whilst those 
remaining have probably grown so weak and defective that thorough 
mastication of solid food is impossible. 

Bad teeth and defective sets of teeth, owing to the resulting inability 
to properly masticate the food, are fertile causes of dyspepsia or indiges- 
tion, heartburn, diarrhoea, worms, and the like. So, on the other hand, 
dyspepsia, and some other affections of the stomach, frequently occasion 
toothache and premature decay of the teeth. 

WHAT IS SEEN UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. 

As a further incentive to cleanliness and care of the teeth and 
mouth, it may be added, that the mucus of the mouth commonly contains 
those microscopic creatures known as infusorial animalcula, and that, 
when foul, it is crowded with millions of them. Leuwenhoek was the 
first to announce this fact, which has since been confirmed by M.'Mandl 
and others. 

Mr. Mandl further discovered that the fur or foul adhesive mucus 
of the tongue, and the tartar, fur, or greenish incrustation of the teeth, 
consist of the skeletons or dead remains of these minute beings com- 
pactly united into one mass by chemical decomposition. These animal- 
cula are most observable in the mouths of persons who neglect their 
teeth, and who live on a spare diet, or eat putrescible articles of food, or 
are in bad health. 

Independently of the direct action on the teeth exerted by substances 
taken by the mouth, before noticed, the nature of our food, through the 
functions of nutrition, has much to do with their beauty, strength, and 
durability. This is particularly the case during the whole period of 
their development and growth. The mineral constituents of the teeth 
are essentially identical with those of the bones. It is therefore evident, 
that, if a sufficiency of bone-matter be not contained in our food, the 
teeth will be ill-developed and feeble. 

Children and youth brought up on brown bread have almost uni- 
formly good teeth, and retain them to a late period of life. 

The popular notion, that sugar and sweets injure the teeth, is, like 



CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 437 

many other popular notions, incorrect. On the contrary, pure sugar and 
confections whiten and preserve the teeth. " Let those who believe the 
former unfounded assertion visit the sugar-plantations, and look at the 
negroes and their children, whose teeth are daily employed in the masti- 
cation of sugar, and they will be convinced of the absurdity of the state- 
ment." Dr. Willis, many years ago, having given the sanction of his 
name to the popular opinion respecting the corrosive action of sugar on 
the teeth, Dr. Slare disproved the notion by reference to his grandfather, 
who had all his life consumed enormous quantities of sugar daily. 

This gentleman was in the habit of eating it, spread upon his bread 
and butter, at breakfast. When eighty years of age, he had all his teeth 
strong and firm, could crunch the hardest crust, and was free from all 
pain and soreness of the gums. In his eighty-second year one of his 
teeth dropped out, and soon after that he lost another, which was one of 
his front teeth. In the following two or three years all his teeth dropped 
out ; but, what was mo-i?e remarkable, they were replaced by the growth 
of a perfectly new and useful set. 

PURE SUGAR AND SWEETS. 

His hair was at that time quite white, but it now became somewhat 
dark. He continued to enjoy good health and strength until his death, 
which happened in the ninety-ninth year of his age." This is undoubt- 
edly, a most extraordinary case ; but numerous later authorities, of the 
highest eminence, might be quoted to show the innocuousness of pure 
sugar and sweets, in reference to the teeth, and even their preservative 
action on them. The practice of crunching dry lump-sugar, or crystallized 
sugar, between the teeth, as is done by some persons, is, however, objec- 
tionable ; since, owing to its greediness for moisture, it so rapidly 
deprives the crowns of the teeth, and the gums surrounding their necks, 
of the saliva that lubricates them, as to cause unnatural dryness and 
even pain. 

Sugar, in the solid form, should be sucked, not chewed. The use 
of sour, or even aciduous sweetmeats, or those containing acrid sub- 
stances, should also be avoided ; for the former attack the enamel of the 
teeth, and the latter injuriously affect the gums. 

Cracks or fissures in the teeth, defects in the enamel, and voids or 
hollows, resulting from caries or rottenness, should be filled up, or 
u stopped," as it is usually called, with gold, mineral uiariiioratum, or 



438 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

some other good cement or " stopping," as soon as possible after they 
become perceptible. For this pnrpose the services of a respectable den- 
tist should be called in. Teeth that are useless and constant sources of 
pain, from the defects just mentioned, may be thus rendered again service- 
able, and will generally remain so for many years. 

Lost teeth, when it is practicable, should be replaced by effective 
artificial ones, care being taken to employ some respectable and skilful 
dentist to supply the latter. Cheap advertising dentists should be care- 
fully avoided, since, in general, they are imposing and clumsy pretenders 
to their art, 

Every tooth is divided into three parts. As already stated, the body, 
or portion projecting from the gum and covered with the enamel ; the 
root or fang, which is received into the socket ; and the neck, which con- 
nects the body and fang together. The body of the tooth contains a 
central cavity, that extends into the fang or root, which is the seat of 
sensation and nutriment. 

STRUCTURE OP THE TEETH. 

The first teeth are called " deciduous," or milk teeth, and are twenty 
in number, ten upon each jaw. 

The second teeth are called " permanent " teeth, and consists of 
lhirty-two, or sixteen upon each jaw. 

The structure of the deciduous and permanent teeth are the same, 
and composed of three distinct parts, viz.: dental, enamel, and cement. 

Dental. — This substance is called the ivory of the tooth and enters 
into the formation of the greater part of the body and fangs. It is of a 
yellowish color and of fibrous structure, which fibres are tubular. These 
fibres are too small to contain blood-vessels, but are filled with a fluid, 
having the appearance of blood serum, which is the nourishing principle 
of the tooth. 

Enamel. — This covers the grinding surface and the body of the 
tooth. It gradually tapers to an edge near the gum — is white, brittle, 
and extremely hard, consisting of solid fibres of an hexagonal form. 

Cement. — This covers the surface of the teeth not invested by the 
enamel. It has the character of true bone and contains the same chemi- 
cal constituents. 

Each tooth fits into a bony socket so firmly as not to admit of 
motion in the healthy condition, and surrounded by a delicate and vascu- 



CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 439 

lar membrane called the periosteum. The teeth of the upper and lower 
jaws are supplied by their respective arteries and nerves, which pass into 
the cavity of the tooth at the lower part of the root. 

The germs of the permanent teeth may be traced in the jaw at birth, 
on the inner side of the deciduous teeth. These sacs are nourished by 
the same vessels as the milk teeth. A curious connection exists between 
the two sets of teeth. A cord passes from the sac of the permanent to that 
of the deciduous tooth. This was formerly supposed to give direction to 
the tooth. According to Dr. Thomas Bell, the sac of the deciduous 
tooth gives off a bud or shoot which subsequently becomes the permanent 
tooth. The cord-like appendage, therefore, is merely the connection 
existing between the offshoot and the parent tooth. It becomes gradu- 
ally atrophied as the permanent tooth develops, and finally appears as a 
mere thread. 

The development of the permanent teeth causes the absorption of 
the deciduous teeth, so that the fangs entirely disappear, or are only 
retained within the socket of the jaw by a small portion of the gum that 
surrounds the body of the tooth. 

CAUSE OF TOOTHACHE. 

When a tooth commences to decay, it is upon the external surface, 
gradually extending toward the internal parts of the tooth. If no effort 
is made to arrest the decay, the destruction of the tooth proceeds rapidly 
on toward the internal cavity, while the exposure of the pulp or nerve 
causes the toothache. When a tooth commences to decay, it should be 
examined by a dentist, and the decayed part removed and the cavity filled 
with gold, or with dentists' cement. 

The decay of teeth is often hereditary. This might be avoided, in 
many instances, by proper attention to them in childhood. After the first 
teeth make their appearance, care should be taken to keep them in a 
cleanly condition. The mouth of the child should be washed once or 
twice a day with a linen rag saturated with cold water, while the first 
appearance of decay should be attended to at once by a dentist. 

Some mothers are exceedingly anxious for their children to present 
an attractive appearance, and will spend several hours a day in dressing 
and curling their hair, while they appear totally indifferent about the 
teeth. What is more offensive than decayed or blackened teeth in a child 
or female ? It presents a more unseemly appearance than uncombed 



440 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

hair or tattered garments. When a child becomes old enough, it should 
be taught to use and made to employ a tooth-brush, night and morning ; 
while a piece of floss-silk should also be passed between the teeth after 
every cleansing. This will prevent the tartar from forming. 

Children's teeth, when they are undergoing decay, sometimes cause 
intense pain to the individual. When such is the case, dissolve four 
parts of mastic in one part of ether, in a well-stopped bottle. With this 
solution, which is of an oily consistency, saturate a piece of cotton-wool 
and press it into the cavity of the tooth. The ether soon evaporates, and 
the mastic forms a coating to the diseased surface and protects it from the 
air and food. Children's teeth should not be removed, even if they are 
decayed, unless they are loose and creating mischief, because of the exist- 
ing connection between them and the permanent teeth, inducing them to 
assume an irregular position. 

COMMENCEMENT OF SECOND SET. 

At from five to seven years of age, it will be observed that the arch 
of the jaw elongates posteriorly, and that an entirely new double tooth 
has taken up a position behind the last double one of the first set. This 
occurs on the upper and lower jaw, and upon both sides, and is indicative 
of the commencement of the second set. Spaces may also be noticed 
between all the teeth, showing that the arch of the jaw is expanding for 
the reception of the second supply of teeth, which teeth are much larger 
than those of the first set. 

When the double teeth make their first appearance, the front ones of 
the first set become loose, and should be at once removed, in order to prevent 
the second set from being crooked or having a wrong direction. This 
changing of teeth continues until about the twelfth year, when all the 
teeth of the first set will be superseded by new ones. At from twelve to 
fourteen years, another double tooth will appear in the rear of the arch 
on both sides, upper and lower, when there is seemingly a pause or suspen- 
sion of their growth until the sixteenth year. From that time until the 
twenty-fourth year, and sometimes later, the wisdom teeth make their 
appearance. Thus we find that there are three important facts to be 
borne in mind in regard to children's teeth, viz. : 

i. The first teeth should not be removed too soon. 

2. They should be removed when the others have appeared, and are 
interfering with them. 



CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 441 

3. Whenever a new tooth has not sufficient space to assume a regu- 
lar position, a dentist should be consulted. 

The children's teeth should be examined every sixth month during 
the shedding of old and and the development of new ones, in order to 
keep the latter regular, clean and sound. The advice already given, if 
attended to, will not only preserve the first teeth, but assist materially 
the beauty of the permanent ones. 

Every individual can do much toward the preservation of the teeth. 
The principal means to this end is to keep them clean. To do this prop- 
erly, they should be well brushed inside and out and on the surface, night 
and morning ; while the interstices between them should be manipulated 
by using a linen or silk thread, so as to prevent articles of food from 
accumulating about them, thus inducing their decay and a fetid breath. 
The tooth-brush should be rather hard, but not too wide ; while the bris- 
tles should be reasonably loose, pliable and elastic. Should the brush be 
even hard enough to produce slight bleeding of the gums, it will not 
prove prejudicial. 

USE OF TOOTH POWDER. 

Tooth powder should be used once a day, in the morning in preference 
to the evening, inasmuch as the teeth during the night are more liable 
to become coated with impurities. The utmost care must be observed in 
selecting a proper tooth-powder. Some of those that are highly recom- 
mended contain certain acids, which will injure the teeth if not utterly 
destroy them. The tooth-powder should be composed only of such ingre- 
dients that will exert a cleansing effect and preserve the healthiness of 
the gums. 

When the tooth-brush is properly used twice a day with cold water, 
it will generally be sufficient to cleanse the teeth and prevent the tartar 
from forming. Castile soap is easily procured, and will prove an excel- 
lent means to neutralize any acid secretion, remove tartar, clean the teeth 
and purify the breath. 

Rinse the mouth with cold water after every meal. The tooth-pick 
should not be of metal, but made of a piece of wood or a quill, not omit- 
ting to pass a silk or linen thread between each tooth, as before directed, 
daily. 

During an attack of fever the teeth are very liable to decay. They 
should therefore be the more frequently cleansed every day. Always 



442 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

rinse the mouth after taking medicine to prevent its injurious action 
upon the teeth. Sometimes mercury is giveu to produce salivation ; the 
teeth become tender to the touch, the gums inflamed, and the breath 
offensive. It also makes the teeth more liable to decay. 

In case the patient should become salivated, the mouth ought then 
be rinsed frequently with tincture of myrrh and chloride of potash. One 
or two grains of the chlorate of potash may be taken internally three or 
four times a day. This is said to be a specific for salivation. Sulphur is 
also a preventive of salivation. It may be given in small doses, if the 
other should not answer the purpose. 

As before remarked, frequent examinations by a dentist, and the 
utmost care to keep the teeth clean, can alone prevent their decay, and 
avoid much pain and anxiety concomitant of defects and impurities. 

TREATMENT OF THE GUMS. 

The gums are liable to disease, and produce by consequence much 
suffering and trouble. They first become inflamed, swollen and con- 
gested with blood. Sometimes the edges become thickened and upon 
pressure discharge matter. They are also sensitive and bleed freely. If 
this condition be not arrested, the disease will extend to the sockets and 
affect the teeth, causing suppuration, so that they become loose and drop 
out. This affection of the gums is generally called scurvy, and is prin- 
cipally occasioned by the accumulation of tartar upon the teeth. The 
same condition may result from disease, or decay of the roots of the 
teeth, or from the improper use of mercury. 

Treatment. — First remove the cause of irritation. Should it be 
tartar, have it removed. If a decayed tooth, have it extracted. If it be 
mercury, abandon its use, and resort to the remedies already mentioned. 

When the cause is removed and the gums continue much inflamed, 
leeches should be applied ; or the gums may be scarified and warm water 
held in the mouth to induce or promote bleeding. After this, use 
some astringent wash. A very good one is as follows : — Take a pound 
of the inner bark of white oak, add three quarts of boiling water, and 
boil it down to a quart ; strain and wash the gums several times a day 
with the preparation. 

Structure of the Skin. — The skin consists of several distinct 
layers, and serves several important purposes in the animal economy. 

ist. It affords a complete covering and protection to sensitive nerves. 



CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 443 

2nd. It affords a large exhalant surface for the elimination of effete 
fluids from the blood. 

3rd. It possesses inhalant apparatus by which fluids may be 
absorbed. 

4th. It prevents the too rapid evaporation of the fluids of the body. 

Epidermis, or Cuticle. — This is the outer layer of the skin, and 
invests the entire surface of the body. It consists of cells arranged in 
layers — those nearest the surface being dry and consisting of mere scales. 
It is insensible and unvascular, there being no nerves or blood-vessels 
found in it. It receives its nourishment from the basement membrane 
lying beneath. As new cells form, the others are pressed up and become 
dry and are thrown off in the form of scurf. Hence there is more or less 
scurf continually thrown off from the skin, which, if not eliminated, 
would clog up the pores of which the skin is supplied, and thus prevent 
the evaporation of effete matter from the blood. From this fact, we per- 
ceive the necessity of keeping the surface of the skin perfectly clean if 
we wish to maintain health and a healthy appearance of the body's 

surface. 

MAIN OBJECT OP TREATING BURNS. 

In blistering, scalds and burns, the outer surface of the skin or 
epidermis is destroyed and stripped off, which leaves the sensitive surface 
exposed to the oxygen of the air, causing pain. The main object in 
treating burns should be to form an artificial cuticle to protect this 
delicate surface. 

One of the best remedies that can be applied, is by saturating raw 
cotton with one part of chloroform or ether, and two parts of sweet oil. 
The oil prevents the absorption of oxygen, while the chloroform or ether 
removes the pain. Flour mixed with water, in the form of paste, and 
applied, will also answer a good purpose. The white of eggs covered with 
oil-silk, will likewise afford an artificial cuticle. Carbonic acid applied to 
a burned surface, will immediately remove the pain. 

The use of the epidermis is to protect the sensitive surface ; to pre. 
vent a too rapid dissipation of caloric ; and to prevent a too rapid evapor- 
ation of the fluids of the body. The color of the different races is 
depending upon a pigment that is deposited in the second layer of the 
skin, which become mingled with the epidermic cells. 

In the negro they are of a dark black color, while in the white races 
they are almost entirely wanting, excepting in freckles, when they are 



444 CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 

observed of a lightish hue. By blistering the skin of a negro it becomes 
nearly the color of the white person, but the pigment soon forms again. 

Sudoriferous Glands. — These are also called the sweat glands. They 
consist of tubes with open mouths upon the surface of the epidermis, and 
extend through the three layers of skin to the sub-cutaneous tissue below. 

According to Wilson, 2,800 of them are formed in a single square 
inch, and, when straightened, each tube is about a quarter of an inch in 
length. The number of square inches in a man of ordinary stature is esti- 
mated at 2,500. Accordingly, the total number of pores must be 7,000,. 
000, and the length of tubing 1,750,000 inches, or 145,833 feet, or 48,611 
yards, or twenty-eight miles. 

PERSPIRATION ACCORDING TO WEATHER. 

The fluid passing off from these glands is usually in the form of 
vapor, and is called "insensible perspiration." When it is more profuse 
it appears in drops, and is then called "sensible perspiration." It usually 
contains lactic acid, which gives the perspiration, when it is profuse, a 
sour smell. There are about twelve parts only in 1,000 of solid matter — 
the balance consists of water. The amount passing off in the shape of 
insensible perspiration, has been estimated at eleven grains per minute. 
Perspiration is wonderfully modified by the condition of the atmosphere. 
When the weather is dry and hot it is quite profuse ; when it is warm 
and moist the perspiration is less, and when the weather is still colder the 
moisture of the skin is diminished in proportion to the degree of the 
thermal changes. 

Sebaceous Glands. — These are distinct from the sudorific glands — the 
former being more abundant where the latter are the least abundant, and 
vice versa. They are absent on the soles of the feet and palms of hands, 
and numerous on the face, scalp, etc. They are little crypts or sacs, 
imbedded in the cutis vera, or true skin. Sometimes there are several of 
these clustered around a duct, into which they open. Sometimes the 
ducts of these glands perform a double function, forming a sheath for the 
hair, and outlet for their glands. 

These glands (the sebaceous) secretes an oleaginous substance, which 
serves to keep the skin smooth and pliable, and to prevent it from becom- 
ing dry and cracked by the action of heat, etc. The secretion is found 
more abundant in those who inhabit warm climates, and with those whose 
occupations subject them to high temperatures. 



CARE OF THE TEETH AND SKIN. 445 

The function of the skin has already been explained, while the 
importance of keeping it clean and in a healthy condition, as an Element 
of Female Beauty, has likewise been demonstrated. 

As I have already intimated, a bright, clear complexion, is only to be 
acquired by three things — temperance, exercise, and cleanliness. If these 
are not maintained, all the cosmetics in the world will be of no avail 
whatever. 

Were a young lady as fair as Hebe or charming as Venus, she will 
speedily mar the most exquisite and voluptuous loveliness by too high 
living and late hours. As to diet — strong coffee, hot cakes and butter ; 
rich peppered soups ; fish, sweet-meats, etc., have destroyed many a con- 
stitution, driven the roses from the cheeks and suffused the countenance 
with a saffron or bilious hue. 

There are a great many disorders induced by ignorance, connected 
with fashion and habit. Besides these, the frequent changes of the 
weather, or the sudden transition from cold to heat, and heat to cold, have 
a sad effect upon the skin, roughening its texture, injuring its hue and 
deforming it with unseemly eruptions. The head and face, especially 
need protection from the atmosphere. Nor should any lady ever go out 
into the hot sun without her veil, or without her having her head prop- 
erly covered. Going out in the autumnal evening without a sufficient 
covering to the head, particularly, is exceedingly detrimental to the beauty 
of complexion. 

The custom of drying the perspiration from the face by powdering 
it, or cooling it when hot from exposure to sun or dancing, by washing 
with cold water, is most destructive to the softness and brilliancy of the 
complexion. The exercise of a little judgment would teach every lady 
that when she is over-heated, she ought to permit herself to cool {grad- 
ually and by all means to avoid going into the air, or allowing a draught 
through an open window or door to blow upon her when thus heated. 
Excessive heat is as bad as is excessive cold for the complexion. In the 
dingy face of the desert-wandering gypsy, may be seen the effects of 
exposure to alternate heats and colds. Let all young women, especially, 
attend to the few rules we have already laid down, and each will then be 
able to retain her health and beauty to the latest period of life. 




"g_r 



headYnd face 




CHAPTER XXXVI. 

OMAN'S large capacity of the skull or brain-case, 
and particularly of its anterior portion, forms 
the distinguishing characteristics and beauty 
of the human head. In the same ratio as the 
forehead recedes, and the jaws protrude, intel- 
lectual development diminishes, and, beyond 
a certain limit, beauty and reason disappear. 
But here it may be remarked, that it is not 
merely on the full development of the fore- 
head that the highest degrees of beauty and 
excellence in the human head depend — the 
several parts, including those which we possess in common 
with other animals, must be duly balanced and propor- 
tioned to each other. Without this, the intellect and 
moral feelings lose much of their value, since the activity, 
energy, and decision of character, necessary for their direc- 
tion and useful application, will be either wholly absent or defective. 

The natural development and shape of the head should never be inter- 
fered with. Attempts to modify them in infancy and childhood, by pressure 
and mechanical means, are now wholly confined to savage tribes. Beyond 
promoting the development of the brain, by the cultivation of the nobler 
sentiments and affections of our nature, and the gradual expansion of 
the intellect, nothing should be attempted. 

The practice, common among ignorant nurses and mothers, of 
pressing together the unossified sutures or soft edges of the bones of the 
skull, for the purpose of " closing them," as they call it, has long been 
condemned by the medical faculty, as not merely useless for the object it 
is intended to effect, but as a fertile source of fits, idiocy, hydrocephalus 
(water-on- the-brain), and other dangerous and often fatal cerebral affec- 
tions resulting from pressure and violence. 

The possession of an elevated and prominent forehead is correctly 
regarded as one of the distinguishing features of the human race. Its 
446 



THE HEAD AND FACE. 447 

erectness and extent are characteristic of reason and nigh, intellectual 
powers, and its development is exactly proportionate to the intelligence 
of the species and of the individual. A lofty, ample forehead is the attri- 
bute of the enlightened white race ; a receding forehead, that of the 
Negro. Beyond a certain limit reason disappears, and idiocy commences. 
The absence of a true forehead is one of the characteristics of the brute 
creation. Its excellence is an important ingredient in personal beauty, 
and is absolutely necessary to the possession of a superior mind. 

The beauty of the face depends chiefly on all its several features being 
pleasingly moulded and in u perfect keeping " with each other. Without 
this proportion between the individual features, the most delicate com- 
plexion, the brightest eyes, the softest checks, the finely-moulded mouth, 
and the ruddiest lips, may fail to charm, and, by contrast, may even dis- 
figure where they should adorn. It is this excellence of proportion that 
constitutes one of the chief elements of personal beauty. 

ERUPTIONS ON THE FOREHEAD. 

The forehead is occasionally affected with eruptions, among which 
the small, hard, distinct pimples, called " acne," deserve particular 
notice. They are regarded by the medical faculty as always sympto- 
matic of a debilitated, and frequently of a ruined constitution, and are 
generally observed in the forehead of those who have prematurely rushed 
into enjoyment and excess, or who indulge in secret vice. " Like the 
brand of Cain," observes a recent eminent writer, " they may be said to 
be placed upon the brow as the mark of the victim who has violated the 
natural laws.'' When numerous, or persistent, they can only be per- 
manently removed by avoiding the habits which have occasioned them, 
and by restoring the general health. 

The forehead is more subject to be marked with wrinkles than the 
other portions of the face. They are the common result of emaciation 
and decay ; and are hence also the usual accompaniments of declining 
life. 

Persons who are moderately stout or fat, and at the same time 
healthy, are little subject to wrinkles. Indeed, it is proverbial, that such 
persons have generally the sleekest skins. 

The toilet of the forehead is limited chiefly to the arrangement oi 
the hair. The possessor of a beautiful forehead is seldom disposed to 
conceal any portion of it, or to modify its apparent form by such means* 



448 THE HEAD AND FACE. 

The practice of wearing the hair over portions of the forehead naturally 
bare is prejudicial to the health of the head, and to the vigor of the 
mind. The contrary practice of throwing or fixing the hair in unnatural 
positions, backward from the forehead, is equally objectionable. The 
defects of an ill-formed forehead may, in general, be rendered less appa- 
rent, and often wholly obscured, by an appropriate arrangement of the 
hair about it — a matter in which the taste of the individual, and the 
example of others, will be the best guides. 

The eyes, of all the features, stand pre-eminent for their beauty and 
ever-varying powers of expression, and for being the organs of the 
most exalted, delicate, and useful of the senses. It is they alone, that 
reveal the external forms of beauty to the mind, and enable it to perceive 
them, even at a distance, with the lightning speed of light. It is they 
alone that clothe the whole creation with the magic charms of color, and 
fix on every object the identity of figure. It is the eyes alone, or chiefly 
that reveal the emotions of the mind to others, and that clothe the fea- 
tures with the language of the soul. 

FACIAL EXPRESSION AND CHARMS. 

Melting with pity, or glowing with hope, or redolent with love, 
benevolence, desire, or emulation, they impart to the countenance those 
vital fascinations which are the peculiar attributes of man. And when 
the mind is subdued by fear, anxiety, or shame, or overwhelmed with 
sorrow or despair, the eyes, like faithful chroniclers, still tell the truthful 
story of the mental disquietude. And hatred, anger, envy, pride, and 
jealousy, ambition, avarice, discontent, and all the varied passions and 
emotions that torment, excite, or depress the human soul, and find a rest- 
ing place in the human breast, obtain expression in the eyes. At one 
moment the instruments of receiving and imparting pleasure, at another 
the willing or passive instruments of pain, their influence and changes 
are as varied and boundless as the empire of thought itself. 

Through their silent expressions the mind reveals its workings to 
the external world in signs more rapid and as palpable as those uttered 
by the tongue. It is the eyes alone that stamp the face with the outward 
symbol of animation and vitality, and which endue it with the visible 
" sanctity of reason." The eye is, indeed, the chief and most " speaking " 
feature of the face, and the one on whose excellence, more than any other, 
its beauty depends. 



THE HEAD AND FACE. 449 

The beauty and expression of the human eye have furnished themes 
for both poets and prose-writers in all ages. Sculptors and painters have 
bestowed their highest skill and most laborious efforts on its delineation, 
and anatomists and physiologists have investigated and described its 
wonderful structure and functions with a degree of zeal and eloquence 
perhaps greater than that devoted to any other organ. 

Physiognomists tell us that the peculiar form, size, and expression 
of the eyes, afford reliable indications of the disposition and the mental 
character of the individual ; whilst the phrenologist assumes, among 
other things connected with these organs and the parts adjacent to them, 
that prominent eyes indicate the presence of the organ of language, 
and that their possessor will never be at a loss to express his thoughts 
in words. 

MEANING OP THE EYE COLORS. 

Theories have been based on even the particular " color of the eyes." 
Thus, it is said, that dark blue eyes are found chiefly in persons of deli- 
cate, refined, or effeminate mental character ; light blue eyes, and more 
particularly gray eyes, in the hardy and active ; hazel eyes in the mascu- 
line, vigorous, and profound ; black eyes in those whose energy is of a 
desultory or remittent character, and who exhibit fickleness in pursuits 
and affection; greenish eyes, it is asserted, have the same general 
meaning as gray eyes, with the addition of selfishness, or a sinistrous 
disposition. These statements, however, though based on some general 
truths, and supported by popular opinion, are liable to so many excep- 
tions as to be unreliable, and valueless, in their individual applications. 

Shakespeare is said to have had hazel eyes; Swift, blue eyes; Milton, 
Scott, and Byron, gray eyes ; Wellington and Napoleon are also said to 
have had gray eyes. 

Much poetry, too, and high-art skill have been expended on the tears, 
and deservedly. Tears are only formed when the fluid that lubricates the 
eye is secreted in excess ; as it is under mental emotion, pain, irritation, 
etc. " It is stated, that a certain distinguished lady, after expatiating, 
for some time, on the incomparable beauty of a tear, pressed one of our 
most eminent professors of chemistry for his opinion on the subject ; to 
which the professor replied : — " They are, indeed, very interesting ; they 
consist of pure water, holding in solution one per cent, of solid matter. 
which I find is chiefly albumen and common salt, with a mere trace of 
29 



450 THE HEAD AND FACE. 

phosphate of soda." The matter-of-fact professor took a scientific veiw of 
the subject ; the lady, a poetical one. 

It has been observed that vision is less acute in man than in many 
other animals, particularly birds. In woman, however, the two eyes are 
directed forward ; and thus, though she does not see on two sides at once, 
like many quadrupeds, her vision is more truly binocular in the same 
direction, there is more uuity in the result of it, and she can concentrate 
her attention more closely on the objects of her regard or scrutiny. 

She may not be capable, like nocturnal and feline animals, and most 
of the herbivora, of seeing in comparative darkness ; nor, like the eagle 
and some other birds, of facing the full blaze of the sun's rays ; but she 
enjoys the faculty of useful natural vision during a greater period of each 
day, and under a greater variety of circumstances, than any of them, 
whilst her reason and inventive powers enable her, by artificial means, 
to assist or to protect her eyes at will, in a manner that causes them to 
surpass those of every other species of animal in their respective visual 
peculiarities and excellence. 

WHAT FORMS A BEAUTIFUL EYE. 

A beautiful eye is one that is full, clear, and brilliant, appropriate in 
color to the complexion, and in form, to the features, and of which the 
connected parts — the eyelids, eyelashes, and eyebrows, which, with it, in 
a general view of the subject, collectively form the external eye — are also 
beautiful, and in keeping with it. 

The management of the eyes, in connection with the toilet, consists 
chiefly in daily bathing or washing them with pure water, and the avoid- 
ance of friction or pressure, exposure to dust, irritating fumes, or vivid 
light, and fatiguing, straining, or overtasking them. In washing them, 
and subsequently wiping them, the utmost delicacy should be exercised. 
Strong soap should be particularly avoided, and only a soft napkin should 
be employed to wipe them. 

The use of a thick, stiff, or coarse towel, for the last purpose, is very 
injurious to them, as it tends to flatten them, and hastens the arrival of 
the time when the assistance of spectacles becomes necessary. Rubbing 
the eyes with the fingers when drowsy, especially on awaking in the 
morning, has a like tendency, and is even more injurious. 

To strengthen the eyes, to relieve thefn when fatigued or stiff, or 
weak, irritable or inflamed, or swollen or congested, and to remove 



THE HEAD AND FACE. 451 

chronic ophthalmia, purulent discharges, etc., nothing is equal to fre- 
quently bathing them with water, at first tepid, but afterwards gradually 
lowered in temperature to absolute coldness. 

The eyes, like the other organs, suffer changes and functional decay 
by age, improper treatment, and excessive use. They are also injured by 
many of the violations of the natural laws that accompany modern civili- 
zation. Among the last, those that affect the nervous system are the 
most injurious to the eyes. Dissipation, and the habitual use of nar- 
cotics — miscalled stimulants — are particularly so. Persons in health, 
with a brain and nervous system unclouded and undepressed by artificial 
habits and the use of narcotics, are those that usually possess the best 
sight, and that retain it unimpaired the longest. 

On the common defects called " long sight," " short sight," and 
" weak sight," a few words may be said here. 

PECULIARITIES OF SIGHT. 

In long sight near objects are indistinctly seen, whilst remote ones 
are more readily perceived. This arises from the crystalline lens of the 
eye, after about the age of thirty, gradually acquiring greater density and 
flatness, and also from the gradual flattening of the transparent, horny 
membrane which forms the front part of the eyeball, and called by anato- 
mists the " cornea." The extremely long sight of the aged depends 
chiefly on the last. Rubbing the eyes, and pressure on them, tends, as 
already mentioned, to produce or increase long sight. 

Short sight is said generally to arise from the central portion of the 
crystalline humor being denser than the other portions ; but it probably 
more frequently arises from excessive convexity of the eyeball. 

Both the above defects may be remedied by the use of appropriate 
spectacles or eye-glasses. Those formed of double- convex lenses, are 
employed to assist "long sight];" and those formed of lenses very slightly 
concave, or preferably, of convexo-concave lenses, for ''short sight." 
Pantoscopic spectacles, or those in which the upper portion of each lens, 
to the extent of about one-third of the vertical diameter, is ground away, 
have the advantage of allowing the wearer to look through them at near 
objects, and over them at distant ones, by which the necessity ot their 
removal is rendered less frequent, and fatigue of the eye avoided. 

Weak sight, when not arising from organic lesion, or an}- derange- 
ment of the optical apparatus of the eye, may generally be more or less 



452 THE HEAD AND FACE. 

relieved by the use of the spectacles of weak magnifying power, popularly 
called " preservers." 

The lenses of spectacles and reading-glasses, to be permanently use- 
ful, and not injurious to the eyes, should be accurately ground, so that 
the sphericity of each of their surfaces be equal in all its parts ; and the 
glass or pebble of which they are formed should be highly polished, per- 
fectly clear, and perfectly free from streaks, bubbles, or other like defects. 
Without all these points are combined in them, vision through them will 
be imperfect, and the eyes gradually but seriously injured by them. 

It is advisable to use glasses of the lowest power capable of effecting 
the desired object satisfactorily, and to replace them with stronger ones 
only as age or circumstances render it necessary. As the focal length of 
the two eyes is very frequently unequal, it is also proper to employ an 
appropriate lens for each, and not two lenses of equal power. 

VARIOUS DEFECTS OF VISION. 

Astigmatism, and other rare defects of vision, of which the precise 
nature is with difficulty detectable, and in which common lenses are use- 
less, may be relieved by the use of others of appropriate forms, which 
the skilled professional observer will point out. 

Defective sight, particularly short sight, often leads to awkward 
actions and a strangeness of deportment, which, by attracting the notice 
of the observer, are detrimental to the influence of the personal charms. 
When this is the case, it is due to ourselves, as well as to those around 
us, to endeavor to remedy the defect by the use of glasses, or by any other 
means. 

The following means of preserving and restoring the sight, which 
has for some time been going the round of the periodical press, being 
really based on scientific principles, may be appropriately inserted here: — 

For near-sightedness, close the eyes and pass the fingers, very gently, 
several times across them outward, from the canthus, or corner next the 
nose, towards the temple. This tends slightly to flatten the cornea and 
lens of the eye, and thus to lengthen or extend the angle of vision. The 
operation should be repeated several times a day, or at least always after 
making one's toilet, until short-sightedness is nearly or completely 
removed. 

For long sight, loss of sight by age, weak sight, and generally for 
all those defects which require the use of magnifying glasses, gently pass 



THE HEAD AND FACE. 453 

the finger, or napkin, from the onter angle or corner of the eyes inward, 
above and below the eyeball, towards the nose. This tends slightly to 
" ronnd np " the eyes, and thus to preserve or restore the sight. It 
should be done every time the eyes are washed, or oftener. 

It is said that many persons, by this last means, have preserved 
their sight, so as to read very small print, at eighty years of age; and 
that others, whose sight had been impaired by age or excessive use, 
have, in like manner, restored their sight and been able to dispense 
with the use of glasses, and have since preserved it by a daily con- 
tinuance of the practice. It must be remembered, however, that, to be 
successful or safe, great gentleness and caution must be observed. 
Violence, or rough pressure, must be carefully avoided. 

Short sight, arising from abnormal density of the central portion of 
the crystalline humor, is often materially lessened by rubbing the fore- 
head, immediately above the eyebrows, with strong tincture of ginger or 
capsicum, essence of ginger, or by applying the same to the temples, 
near the eyes. Weak sight, and swollen eyes, arising from excessive use 
or fatigue, may also often be relieved in the same way. 

CURE FOR SQUINTING. 

Squinting — " strabismus " of medical writers — when not depending 
on any organic peculiarity, is commonly acquired in childhood by silly 
efforts to look singular, or by imitating others. When one eye only is 
affected, it is recommended to blindfold the sound eye for several hours 
daily, until the affection.be removed. When both eyes are affected, a 
projecting piece of pasteboard, in the line of the nose, worn for several 
hours daily, will generally effect a cure. In bad cases of " squinting 
inwards, as it is called, the division of the internal rectus muscle of the 
eyeball — an operation that must be performed by a skilful surgeon — is 
said often to relieve the deformity. 

Of diseases of the eyes only two or three can be usefully noticed here : 
Inflammation of the eye — " ophthalmia " or " ophthalmitis " of medi- 
cal writers — in ordinary cases is confined to the external membrane of the 
eyeball, or to the eyelids ; but it occasionally attacks deeper-seated por- 
tions of the eye, and assumes a corresponding serious character. The 
common causes of ordinary or conjunctival ophthalmia are exposure of 
the organ to cold, drying winds, to dust, gritty particles, irritating fumes, 
or to any external source of irritation or injury. 



454 THE HEAD AND FACE. 

The symptoms are, for the most part, those common to local inflam- 
mation, and are well-known. The eye, or eyes, become more or less blood- 
shot, swollen and tender, and a sensation of the presence of particles of 
sand or other gritty substance, with much heat and pricking, is constantly 
experienced. The fluid secretion of the eye becomes yellowish and thick, 
and during the night, by drying, frequently glues, as it were, the lids 
together ; sometimes only one eye is attacked ; but, except in very trivial 
cases, after two or three days the disease extends to the other. 

The treatment of mild cases of ordinary ophthalmia is extremely 
simple. The eyes should be frequently bathed or fomented with warm 
water, or with decoction of poppy-heads ; the light should be excluded 
as much as possible ; the diet should be reduced below the usual standard, 
and be light and easily digestible ; stimulating liquors should be care- 
fully avoided ; and the bowels kept gently open by the use of mild aperi- 
ent medicines. When the inflammatory symptoms have subsided, luke- 
warm water, and then cold water, may be used to bathe the eyes, and 
very mild astringent and cooling eye-waters applied three or four times 

daily. 

REMEDY FOR OPHTHALMIA. 

In the chronic forms of ordinary ophthalmia, in the purulent ophthal- 
mia of infants, and in that following the small-pox, measles and fevers, 
when there is little or no inflammation, mild astringent solutions may be 
at once had recourse to. The diluted ointment of nitrate of mercury, or 
of nitric oxide of mercury, is here also an excellent remedy. 

In every variety of ophthalmia, the eye should be kept clean by 
careful and frequent ablution with warm water, or warm milk and water. 
The occasional use of the astringent solutions should be continued for 
some time after the disease has disappeared, for the purpose of preventing 
its recurrence and strengthening the eyes. 

In the inflammation and ulceration of the eyelids called a psoroph- 
thalmia," or " ophthalmitis tarsalis," by surgeons, which is attended with 
considerable itching and irritation, and with a copious discharge of viscid, 
acrimonious matter, the ointment of nitrate of mercury, or of nitric oxide 
of mercury, diluted with ten or twelve times its weight of fresh washed 
lard, will be found an excellent remedy. A very small quantity of this 
ointment should be applied, night and morning, by means of a camel- 
hair pencil, a feather, or the tip of the little finger. 

To relieve the pain and irritation in ophthalmia, psorophthalmia and 



THE HEAD AND FACE. 455 

other like affections of the eye, a single drop of solution of hydrochlorate 
or acetate of morphia, or of wine of opium, previously diluted with twice 
or thrice its volume of water, may be applied to the organ two or three 
times a day. 

Ophthalmia is sometimes symptomatic of other affections, as gout, 
rheumatism, hysteria, etc., when the treatment, under medical advice, will 
have reference to the primary disease. Intense pain, having this origin, 
is sometimes felt in the eye when no inflammation or other affection of 
this organ exists. The malignant forms of ophthalmia often produce 
intense suffering, ending in total blindness, and are highly contagious. 

In blear-eye — " lippitudo " — there is an exudation of purulent matter 
from the margins of the eye-lids, which are red, humid and somewhat 
painful, and frequently, during the night, glued together by the discharge. 
Mild astringent eye-waters, or the ointments mentioned above, are here also 
the best applications. Excess in eating and drinking should likewise be 
avoided, and some aperient medicine taken. 

HOW TO STRENGTHEN THE EYES. 

Weak, watery eyes may be strengthened by frequently bathing them 
at first with tepid water, and afterwards with cooler water — the temperature 
being daily lowered until perfectly cold water be used. 

Red or blood-shot eyes, when not depending on organic lesion or 
visceral disease, are usually produced by dissipation, gluttony or excessive 
drinking or smoking. The only remedy known is the abandonment of 
the vicious habits on which the evil depends. 

The small inflamed tumor, or boil, somewhat resembling a barley- 
corn, which sometimes forms at the edge of the eyelid, and is popularly 
called a sty, though inconvenient and painful, is seldom of long duration. 
It is usually recommended to promote its maturation and suppuration by 
warm fomentations or poultices ; since, when once formed, the sty, like 
other furunculous tumors, generally runs its course. A bread-poultice, 
to which a little sweet lard or olive oil has been added, is the best for the 
purpose. 

Of external injuries of the eyes, those from blows, pressure, and the 
presence of foreign bodies are the most common. The pain and tume- 
faction produced by blows and pressure may, in ordinary cases, be gen- 
erally relieved by freely bathing or fomenting the organ with warm water. 
The pain may be further relieved by the use of solution oi acetate or 



456 THE HEAD AND FACE. 

hydrochlorate of morphia in the way already mentioned. If persistent, 
the diet should be at once lowered, stimulants avoided, and aperients 
taken. 

Black-eyes, arising from blows, may be treated in the way noticed 
under " bruises. " Any persistent discoloration may be concealed, or 
greatly lessened, in the way mentioned in the next paragraph. 

The darkness or discoloration round the eyes, frequently observable 
in females, and which is sometimes permanent, but more frequently peri- 
odical, is either constitutional or depends on certain conditions of health, 
and occurs and disappears with them. In the fashionable world, the aid 
of the cosmetic art is not uncommonly called in to disguise these 
discolorations. 

A little French chalk or talc, in impalpable powder, is rubbed on the 
part and then gently "dusted off" with a camel-hair pencil or a tuft of 
badger's hair, or the excess is blown off with the breath. A little of the 
same powder that has been very slightly tinted with rouge or carmine is 
next applied, the excess being removed as before. The application of the 
pencil to clear the edges of the eyelashes, and of the corner of a soft 
napkin to " tone down " the outer margins of the parts treated, finishes 
the operation. 

EFFECTS OF IRRITATING SUBSTANCES. 

The effects of dust, dirt, acrid fumes, and other irritating substances 
on the eyes, may be met by freely bathing them in warm water, or by the 
use of the eye-douche. Gently raising the eyelid with the fingers, and 
holding it apart from the eye for a short time, will generally cause a 
copious discharge of tears, which will wash away the offending matter 
and relieve the irritation. 

Foreign bodies, as particles of sand, grit, glass, metal, lime, mortar, 
or sparks from wood fires, the chimneys of steam-boats, locomotives, etc., 
lodged in the eye, should be at once removed by raising the eyelid, and 
the application of a feather, the corner of a silk handerchief, or the 
moistened tip of the finger. If the substance be embedded in the eye- 
ball, or in the substance of the eyelid, a pair of forceps may be necessary 
to remove it, but they should be used in the most careful and gentle 
manner. 

If the removal be delayed, the irritation that is rapidly set up ren- 
ders the operation more difficult, and the consequences more serious. 



THE HEAD AND FACE. 457 

After the operation, the eye should be freely bathed for some time with 
warm water, or when lime or mortar has been the offending substance, 
with water slightly acidulated with vinegar or acetic acid. In all serious 
cases, and particularly where the body of the eyeball is implicated, sur- 
gical aid should be immediately sought. 

The eyelids deserve a special mention. The practice of tinting the 
edges of them black for the purpose of increasing the apparent white- 
ness and brilliancy of the eye, common among the ladies of Eastern 
nations, is, in our country, only occasionally adopted by actresses 
courtezans, and ladies of the demi-monde. 

The beauty of the eyelashes consists chiefly in their length and 
silkiness. These qualities may be promoted by occasionally " topping " 
them with a pair of sharp scissors. The practice is most effective when 
commenced in early childhood. The least possible portion of their 
extremities should be removed ; and the operation, to be neatly done, 
must be performed by a second person. 

TREATING THE EYEBROWS. 

The eyebrows unlike the eyelashes, should never be cut, or in any 
way subjected to the action of the scissors or razor. Their beauty con- 
sists in their being smooth, glossy, and well-defined, in having little 
breadth vertically, and in extending in a graceful, arched line over the 
eyes. Cutting them ultimately destroys these qualities, by causing them 
to grow coarse, stiff and irregular. After washing the face, the fingers 
or napkin should be passed over them to smooth them and to set the 
hairs in their places. This is all that is required. 

Some ladies, however, when making their toilet, pass the finger, 
very slightly moistened with oil or pomade, over the eyebrows, to 
darken them and give them gloss ; but the practice is not to be recom- 
mended. An occasional gray or prominent bristly hair in the eyebrows 
may be plucked out with the tweezers. It should never be cut off, as is 
the common practice. 

Persons who dye their hair or beards are very apt to meddle with the 
eyebrows, and often produce effects contrary to their intentions, and far 
from pleasing. This is nearly alwa}^ the case with persons of a light 
complexion, or who are pale, either from confinement indoors or from ill- 
health. It is true that Oriental ladies darken their eyebrows to enhance 
their charms: but then it must be recollected that their hair is naturally 



458 THE HEAD AND FACE- 

black or dark, and that the tone of their complexions corresponds. Any 
interference with the natnral color of the eyebrows should, therefore, be 
limited to merely brightening and slightly darkening them. Attempts 
beyond this generally end in discomfiture. 

The nose, though so necessary to the general make-up, seems to labor 
under the misfortune of being generally turned into ridicule whenever it 
forms the subject on the tapis. How far it deserves the slights and fun 
so frequently " poked" at it, I must leave the happy possessors of noses 
to form their own opinions. There have been, however, many excellent 
and philosophical writers who have deemed the human nose worthy of 
their serious consideration, and even of euology. 

WELL-FORMED NOSE ESSENTIAL TO BEAUTY. 

Sir Joshua Reynolds regarded a well-formed nose as essential to 
personal beauty. He tells us, that " the line that forms the arch of the 
nose is beautiful when it is straight;" and he further observes, "this, 
then, is the central form which is oftener met with than either the concave, 
convex, or any other irregular form which can be proposed." Sir Charles 
Bell declares, among other matters, that " the nostrils," which form so 
prominent a portion of the nose, " are features which have powerful effect 
in expression. The breathing drawn through them, and their structure 
formed for alternate expansion and contraction, in correspondence with 
the motions of the chest, form an index to the condition of respiration when 
affected by emotion." 

Mr. Warwick thus angrily argues against the indifference to the 
subject now generally existing : — 

c< Because the nose is influenced by the feelings which agitate and 
vary the mind, and is, therefore, immovable and unvaried, no one will 
hear the theory of Nasology broached without incredibility and risibility. 
Because the nose is subject only to those faculties of the mind which are 
permanent and unfluctuating, and is, therefore, likewise permanent and 
unfluctuating in its form, men have paid no attention to its indications, 
and will, accordingly, abuse as an empiric and a dotard the first 
nasologist. 

" But is there, a priori, anything so unreasonable in attributing 
mental characteristics to the nose, when we all daily read each other's 
minds in the nose's next door neighbors, the eyes and mouth ? Is not the 
a priori inference entirely in favor of a negative reply? And that, a pos- 



THE HEAD AND FACE. 459 

teriori, it may confidently be replied to in the negative, will, it is hoped, 
presently appear." 

The author next proceeds to " explain and demonstrate " his doctrine 
of noses, which he arranges in six different classes. . To each class he 
ascribes certain mental and moral qualities, and sustains his arguments 
by outline portraits of distinguished men. Then he furnishes us with 
examples of " mixed noses," or such as are compounded of two or more of 
his leading types. These he also illustrates from life. His classification 
of noses is as follows : — 

i. The Roman, or aquiline nose ; 2. Greek, or straight nose ; 3. 
Cogitative, or wide-nostrilled nose; 4. Jewish, or hawk-nose; 5. Snub- 
nose ; 6. Celestial, or turn-up nose." 

In this table, Mr. Warwick has degraded the Grecian or straight 
nose — the nose of beauty and intellect — to the second place. He has 
also omitted the " button nose," the " veritable pug-nose," and the nose 
which Solomon, in a strain of enamored flattery, compares to " the tower 
of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus." 

THE HANDSOME GRECIAN NOSE. 

Now, although each of the preceding noses, if gracefully moulded 
and proportioned to the other features, may occasionally form a component 
part of a pretty, or even a somewhat handsome face, it must be admitted, 
that the Grecian nose is essential to the higher forms of beauty. "Solo- 
mon," observes the reviewer, "merely proves the antiquity of the adage — 
De gustibus nil disputandum" (There is no disputing about taste). 
" Now I deem it as becoming to see a woman standing behind a good, 
roomy nose, as to contemplate a fair temple with a majestic portico ; but 
it maybe questioned whether a nose like the tower of Lebanon, is not 
somewhat too elephantine, and bordering on the proboscis. The nose 
that turns up is undoubtedly smart and piquant ; the button-nose, like all 
other diminutives, is endearing ; and even the snub-nose absolutely has 
its admirers. Cupid can get over it, though it have no bridge, in the 
same way that ' he jumps through a wall-eye like a harlequin/ ' 

Mr. Warwick expatiates with evident zest on the noses of the Duke 
of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte. That of the first, he says, was 
a Roman nose — an undoubted fact; that of the latter, a Romano-Greek 
nose. He then triumphantly compares Wellington — nose and character 
— to Julius Caesar ; and Bonaparte, to Alexander the Great. According 



460 THE HEAD AND FACE. 

to Napoleon III., however, Caesar Had a long, straight nose — i. e., a Gre- 
cian nose ; while certain other historical writers tell ns that Alexander's 
nose, to nse a gentle term, was not a prominent or beantiful feature in his 
face. 

The " non-cogitative form" of the American nose almost brings tears 
into Mr. Warwick's eyes. He declares it to be " the most unthinking of 
any of the Gothic stock." " America is, however, a fast-growing nation; 
it had no infancy, but started at once into life, a full-grown youth." Mr. 
Warwick has, therefore, hope that the national nose of America will 
gradually improve, and ultimately assume the " cogitative form of that of 
its ancestors," which it should already possess by inheritance, but does 
not, according to this author. 

NAPOLEON'S IDEA OF THE BEST NOSE. 

16 Give me," said Napoleon, " a man with a good allowance of nose ;" 
from which we may infer, that great military commander regarded a 
liberal development of this feature as indicating the character desirable 
in a soldier. 

Among refined nations, and even in the fashionable world, the nose 
may be regarded as one of the most fortunate of the features ; since it 
almost uniformly escapes being interferred with at the toilet, further than 
simple cleanliness requires. This is precisely as it should be, for no 
interference with it, after childhood, can advantageously modify its form 
or promote its beauty. 

The nose, with air-passages connected with it, always resents inter- 
ference and mistreatment, whether there be frequent meddling with it 
with the fingers, blowing it frequently with ungracious violence, exciting 
it with stimulants, or choking it up with irritating powders. The ill 
effects of such treatment soon become perceptible, as may be frequently 
observed in irritable children and youth, and in inveterate snuff-takers. 
In the last, both the form of the nostrils and the tone of voice suffer. 
Heavy blows and pressure on the nose rapidly deform it, and destroy its 
beauty. 

The beauty of the human mouth and lips, the delicacy of their 
formation and tints, their power of expression, which is only inferior to 
that of the eyes, and their elevated position as the media, with the palate, 
tongue, and teeth, by which we communicate our thoughts to others in an 
audible form, need scarcely be dilated on here. The poet tells us that — 



THE HEAD AND FACE. 461 

* * The lips of women out of roses take 

The tints with which they ever stain themselves. 

They are the beautiful and lofty shelves 
Where rests the sweetness which the young hours make, 

And which the earnest boy, whom we call Love, 
Will often sip in sorrow or in play. 

Health when it comes doth ruddiness approve, 
But his strong foe soon nutters it away ! 

Disease and health for a warm pair of lips, 
Iyike York and Lancaster, wage active strife ; 

One on his banner front the White rose keeps, 
And one the Red ; and thus with woman's life, 

Her lips ate made a battle-field for those 

Who struggle for the color of a rose." 

A beautiful mouth is one that is moderately small, and has a well- 
defined and graceful outline ; and beautiful lips are such as are gracefully 
moulded, neither thick nor thin, nor compressed nor lax, and that are 
endowed with expression, and tinted with the hues of health. The ladies 
of Eastern nations commonly heighten the hue and freshness of their 
lips by means of cosmetics, a practice which in Western Europe is only 
adopted on the stage, and occasionally by coutezans and ladies of the 
demi-monde. 

The lips are very liable to suffer when exposed to cold and drying 
winds. The most common effects of such exposure are chaps or small 
fissures in them, and a species of erysipelatous eruption consisting of 
small clusters of minute vesicles, which soon become moist from the 
discharge of the watery humor which they contain. 

Chapped lips most frequently occur in persons with pale, bluish, 
moist lips, and a languid circulation, who are much exposed to the wind 
in dry cold weather, or who are continually moving from heated apart- 
ments to the external air. East and north-east winds are those that 
generally produce them. The occasional application of a little cold- 
cream, lip-salve, spermaceti-ointment, or any other mild unguent, will 
generally prevent them, and remove them when they have already formed. 
A still more elegant and effective preventive and remedy is glycerine 
diluted with about twice its weight of eau-de-rose, or glycerinated lip- 
salve or balsam. 

The moist vesicular eruption of the lips, referred to above, may also 
generally be prevented by the use of glycerine, or any oi the prepara- 
tions just mentioned. 



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THE NECK AND LIMBS. 




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CHAPTER XXXVII. 



the neck and throat little need be said. The 
evils resulting from tight bandages and pres- 
sure on these parts are evident ; and here it 
may be useful to call attention to the ill conse- 
quences that frequently arise from their free 
exposure, or from their being insufficiently 
protected from draughts, cold, and rapid vicissi- 
tudes of the weather. The low dresses of 
fashionable life that generally replace, at a 
later part of the day, the higher and warmer 
morning dress, which until then has been worn 
in safety and comfort, are perhaps the most certain traps 
ever invented by fashion to catch sore throats, bronchitis, 
influenza, and a whole host of breath-ailments, of which 
fatal lung diseases are the common results. In early life, 
low frocks are more particularly dangerous, and are rend- 
ered still more objectionable from the habit which children commonly 
have of shuffling them off one of the shoulders, and thus leaving the 
upper portion of the chest exposed in a manner that even the most hardy 
often cannot long resist. 

It should be recollected that the throat and neck, particularly the 
first, contain numerous important glands, and other organs, which are 
highly susceptible to cold and changes of temperature ; and that, at the 
bottom of the throat, lie the apexes of the lungs — those delicate organs, 
which, in these latitudes, are many times more susceptible to disease 
from exposure and climatic changes than all the other vicera put together. 
The neck of beauty is that of the period which ranges from the 
early prime to the ripe maturity of women, of which the most perfect 
conception is given us in the Greek sculptures — the Venus, the Diana, 
the Niobe, and many of the Naiads. In masculine beauty, the Apollo 
Belvedere, in this respect, furnishes a transcendent model to all time. 
462 



THE NECK AND LIMBS. 463 

Neither the elongated cylinder that forms the neck of the crane-family, 
nor the frustum of a cone which forms that of certain porcine bipeds, 
can possibly have the slightest pretentions to beauty. 

Of the shoulders, it may be observed that, in woman, those are the 
most beautiful which are neither wide nor meanly narrow, and which 
droop or flow, as it were, into the arms in a graceful undulating curve. 
In man, broad shoulders, if well proportioned, are a sign of strength. 
Stays or corsets, worn in youth and early maturity, tend to make the 
shoulders high and broad; and thus distort, instead of improve, the 
figure. 

The armpit or " axilla " may be referred to here, on account of the 
common practice, among ladies, of wearing pieces of oil-skin, oiled silk, 
thin sheet gutta percha or India-rubber, and the like, inside their dress, over 
the part, under the name of " dress protectors." This practice cannot be 
too strongly reprobated; since the axilla is full of important blood-vessels, 
nerves, glands, etc., and should not be subjected to undue heat, a close 
atmosphere, or pressure. Two or three folds of good blotting-paper, 
covered with a piece of gauze, will affect the same object as these so- 
called " dress-protectors," without any of their inconvenient results. 

DELICACY AND BEAUTY OP THE ARM. 

Of the " limbs," the arm may rationally claim the first notice. To 
preserve its delicacy and beauty it should be shielded from the weather, 
and particularly from the direct rays of the sun, and from cold drying 
winds, by means of appropriate clothing, as noticed when speaking 
generally of the skin. 

The human hand, regarded either with reference to its ingenious 
construction and usefulness, or to its beauty, stands alone, in its superla- 
tive excellence, in the whole animal world. In no other species ot 
animal is the hand so wonderfully formed, and so perfectly developed, as 
in mankind. Springing in a compactly moulded body from the wrist, and 
provided with fingers possessing expanded tactile extremities composed 
of an exquisitely sensitive and discriminative integument, and, above all, 
possessing a thumb which may be either placed in opposition or opposed 
to the other fingers, it is endowed with all the essential attributes of 
strength and mobility, and exalted powers of perception, of delicate and 
varied operations, that the ordinal purpose of life, and the industrial 
and constructive skill of an intellectual being can require. 



464 THE NECK AND UMBS. 

In the anthropoid organ — the animal the nearest approaching man 
in the formation of the upper extremeties — the disproportionate develop- 
ment of the fingers, and the dwindled thumb, mark its imperfections for 
handling and for touch ; whilst the arms, lengthened to actual deformity, 
proclaim their chief use to be for grasping and climbing, as a forest 
animal. 

In olden times it was a common superstition that the character and 
fortune cf the individual were legible in the hands, to the eyes of the 
initiated. Volumes were, indeed, written on the subject, and pretended 
professors of the art were numerous, and greatly sought after by the 
ignorant and superstitious. 

Of the different systems of u chiromancy," or divination by the hands, 
the most popular and extensively practiced was " palmistry," or fortune- 
telling by the lines of the palm. Though now chiefly confined to 
gipsies, it was once professedly explained and warmly defended by grave 
and learned authors. Then there was u dactylomancy," or the art of 
divination by the fingers, and by finger-rings ; and also " onychomancy," 
or divination by the nails. 

CHARACTER INDICATED BY THE THUMB. 

The form and size of the thumb, too, were thought to be significant 
of the character, and of coming events that thus " cast their shadows 
before." A finely formed and well developed thumb was regarded as 
indicative of a strong and active individuality ; whilst the reverse was 
conceived to be indicated when it was small and ill developed. The same 
parties conceived that persons with a small thumb are ruled by the heart, 
and are prone to be faithful in friendship and constant in love ; whilst 
those with a large thumb are guided by the head, and often er follow the 
dictates of self-interest, and cold calculating reason, than the impulses of 
affection and duty. 

The motive hand, it was said, is always furnished with a large 
thumb. In La Vendee, a large thumb is still thought to indicate one 
who dabbles in the forbidden mysteries of the " black art." The term 
" pollex truncatus " was applied by the Romans to a person who, for the 
purpose of avoiding military service, basely cut off or mutiiatcu the 
thumb ; and lexicographers tell us that from this term, by contraction and 
corruption, comes our word '* poltroon." 

In the Roman amphitheatre, the desire that a conquered gladiator 



THE NECK AND LIMBS. 465 

might be spared was expressed by raising the thumb ; its depression was 
a sentence of death. Among the Anglo-Saxons, mutilation of the thumb 
was punished by a heavy fine. Itching of the thumbs was formerly 
supposed t5 indicate the approach of a stranger ; and the words of Shake- 
speare, " I will bite my thumb at them, which is a disgrace to them if 
they bear it," show that this biting the thumb was then held to be strongly 
expressive of insult and defiance. 

NEGLECT OP THE HANDS. 

To preserve the delicacy and beauty of the hands, some little care, 
and more than that which is ordinarily bestowed on them, is required. 
Foremost in consideration must be the subject of cleanliness. Dirty and 
coarse hands are no less marks of slothfulness and low breeding, than 
clean and delicate hands are of refinement and gentility. To promote 
the softness and whiteness of the skin, mild emollient soaps, or those 
abounding in oil or fat, should alone be adopted for common use ; by 
which means the tendency to contract chaps and chilblains, and rough- 
ness from drying winds, will also be lessened. The coarse, strong kinds 
of soap, or those abounding in alkali, should, for a like reason, be rejected, 
as they tend to render the skin rough, dry and brittle. The immersion 
of the hands in alkaline lyes, or in strongly acidulated water, has a sim- 
ilar effect, which increases with the temperature of the liquid. Rain- 
water, or soft water, is the best natural water for washing the hands, as it 
cleanses them more rapidly and completely than ordinary hard water, and 
with the use of less soap. Glycerinated water renders the skin soft, 
white and supple. The best time for applying is immediately before retir- 
ing to rest at night. Coarse, red, dark-skinned hands may be whitened 
by the occasional use of a few grains ot chloride of lime with warm water. 

Roughness of the hands, induced by exposure to cold and drying 
winds, may, in general, be removed by the use of a little powdered pumice- 
stone with the soap in washing them. The subsequent application, partic- 
ularly at night, of two or three drops of almond-oil or olive-oil, well rubbed 
in, will usually effect the object completely. 

The hands may be preserved dry for delicate work by rubbing a little 
club-mo^s' (lycopodium), in fine powder, over them. So repellent is this 
substance of moisture, that if a small quantity of it be sprinkled on the 
surface of a basin of water, the hand, b}^ a little adroitness, may be 
plunged to the bottom of the basin without becoming wet. 
30 



466 THE NECK AND LIMBS. 

Excessive moistness or perspiration of the hands, without obvious 
cause, is generally indicative of debility or disordered stomach, and 
requires corresponding treatment. Frequently washing the hands in 
moderately cold water often proves a local remedy for the inconvenience. 
The addition of a few grains of alum, sal ammoniac or sulphate of zinc, 
or of a teaspoonful of vinegar, to the water, greatly increases its efficacy. 
Extremely delicate and susceptible persons cannot always bear the exces- 
sive perspiration of their hands to be thus suddenly lessened, and there- 
fore some discretion should be exercised by them in their attempts to 
check it. 

Persons who are compelled to handle substances, or to immerse their 
hands in liquids, that injuriously affect the skin, would do well to wash 
their hands as soon after such exposure as possible, and apply a little 
glycerine or oil to them every night. In many cases, injurious conse- 
quences may be prevented by well rubbing the hands with a little salad- 
oil or fat before commencing their business duties, the excess of oil being 
removed by the free application of a towel When possible, thick leather 
gloves, or, what is often better, gloves of India-rubber or Mackintosh, may 

be worn. 

DISTORTED JOINTS AND FINGERS. 

Rough usage or violent exertion of the hands, whether in work or m 
sport, tends to make them broad, thick and coarse, and to produce enlarge- 
ment and distortion of the joints of the fingers. Lifting heavy bodies 
with the fingers is particularly destructive of their beauty, as it causes 
the tapering circular form, so much admired in them, to be lost, their tips 
becoming broad and flat, and the nails also flattened. 

In all cases the use of gloves out of doors is necessary, in both sexes, 
to preserve the delicacy and beauty of the hands — 1 to protect them from 
the direct rays of the sun in summer, and the drying winds and cold of 
the other seasons of the year. 

" Gloves," says a French author, " are the complement of every 
costume." " Their existence is not modern — traces of them are found in 
Scripture, in Ruth and in the Book of Kings. Homer, in his ' Odyssey/ 
shows us Laertes pulling up thorns in his garden, his hands being 
defended by leather gloves. Xenophon refers their first use to the Per- 
sians. Athenaeus describes a celebrated gourmand who came to a 
banquet with gloved hands, to eat more rapidly and easily, whilst the 
other guests waited for the viands to become sufficiently cool to handle. 



THE NECK AND LIMBS. 467 

Silk mittens remind ns of the fine old days of Louis XIV. and the 
coquettish epoch of Louis XV. At the present day we have mittens, 
gloves of kid, worsted, silk, muslin, Scotch thread and cotton. 

The finger-nails require special attention if we desire to preserve them 
in their highest condition of beauty and usefulness. To keep them clean, 
the nail-brush, and soap-and-water, should be used once or oftener daily, 
as circumstances demand. Once a day, at least, on wiping the hands 
after washing them, and whilst they are still soft from the action of the 
water, the free edge of the scarf-skin which, if not attended to, is apt to 
grow upward over the nails, should be gently loosened and pressed back, 
in a neatly rounded form, by which the occurrence of cracks and sores 
about their roots will be prevented, and a graceful oval form, ending in a 
crescent-like space of white, will be ensured. 

TREATMENT OP THE FINGER NAILS. 

This skin, as a rule, should never be cut, pared, picked, or torn off. as 
is commonly done ; and the less it is meddled with, otherwise than in the 
way just mentioned, the better. The ends or points of the nails should 
be pared once every week or ten days, according to the rapidity of their 
growth, which somewhat varies with the season of the year and the habit 
of the individual. This is best done with a penknife or nail-knife. Scis- 
sors are less convenient for the purpose, and have the disadvantage of 
straining and distorting the nails during the process. 

The length and shape of the nails, both for beauty and use, should 
exactly correspond with the tips of the fingers. Nails extending beyond 
the ends of the fingers are vulgar, claw-like, and inconvenient ; whilst if 
shorter, particularly much shorter than the fingers, they are unsightly 
and of little use, and cause the tips of the fingers to become thick and 
clumsy. Biting the nails should be avoided as a dirty and disagreeable 
habit, and one utterly destructive to their beauty, strength, and usefulness. 

To remove stains and discolorations of the nails, a little lemon-juice, 
or vinegar-and-water, is the best application. Should this fail, a few 
grains of salt of sorrel, oxalic acid, or chloride of lime, each diluted with 
warm water, may be applied, care being taken to thoroughly rinse the 
hands in clean water, without soap, afterwards. Occasionally a lit 
pumice-stone, in impalpable powder, or powdered cuttle-fish bone, putty- 
powder (polisher's peroxide of tin), may be used along with water and a 
piece of wash-leather, flannel, or the nail-brush, for the same pnrpos 



468 THE NECK AND LIMBS. 

The frequent use of any of these substances is, however, injurious to 
the healthy growth, strength, and permanent beauty of the nails. The 
common practice of scraping the surface of the nails cannot be too strongly 
censured, as it causes them to become weak and distorted. Blows on the 
nails, and, indeed, violence to them in any form, also distorts and marks 
them. 

The ladies of Oriental nations commonly dye the nails ; and amongst 
many savage tribes the same practice is adopted, and is not confined to 
the gentler sex. Among Western Europeans, and Americans, white and 
regularly formed nails are alone esteemed. 

HOW TO TREAT AFFECTIONS OF THE HANDS. 

Of affections and injuries of the hands, the following may be usefully 
noticed here : — 

Chapped hands are common among persons with a languid circula- 
tion who are continually "dabbling" in water during cold weather, and 
particularly among those with a scrofulous taint, who, without the last, 
expose their ungloved hands to bleak cold winds. The best preventives, 
as well as remedies, are the use of warm gloves out of doors, and the 
application, night and morning, of a little glycerine, diluted with twice or 
thrice its weight of water, or a little cold-cream, spermaceti-cerate, salad- 
oil, or any other simple unguent or oil, which should be well rubbed in, 
the superfluous portion being removed with a towel. 

Chilblains are those well-known inflammatory swellings, of a color 
more or less leaden or purple, produced by the action of cold. They 
exclusively attack the extremities of the body, and are generally confined 
to the fingers, toes, and heels. Itching, irritation, and tenderness, often 
accompanied with shooting pains and tumefaction, are the common symp- 
toms. Children, particularly those of a weakly or scrofulous habit, and 
elderly persons, are generally the most liable to them ; but they are 
frequent among all persons in whom the circulation in the extremeties is 
languid. 

One of the most common causes of them is holding the hands or feet 
to the fire after they have been exposed to cold. Any sudden change 
of temperature under such circumstances, especially from cold to heat, 
should be carefully avoided, as the action of the minute surfacial blood- 
vessels is thereby more or less arrested, and their vitality, in many cases, 
partially destroyed. 



THE NECK AND LIMBS. 469 

The best preventives of chilblains are warm, easy-fitting gloves of 
worsted or leather, woollen stockings or socks, good water-proof, but not 
air-tight, boots and shoes, vigorous exercise, and vigorous friction. These 
act by keeping up the heat of the parts and protecting them from vicissi- 
tudes of temperature, by which the circulation of the blood in the minute 
vessels of the surface continues unchecked. 

When chilblains have once formed, and during their incipient stages^ 
the best treatment is with local stimulants and counter-irritants. Among 
these may be mentioned, painting the parts twice a day with strong tinc- 
ture of iodine, or friction with oil of turpentine (with or without the 
addition of a little salad-oil), opodeldoc, camphorated oil, hartshorn-and- 
oil, and the like. Glycerinated lotion of sal-ammoniac is also an effective 
remedy. Linnaeus recommended bathing the parts with dilute hydro- 
chloric acid just strong enough to slightly prick the skin. When the 
inflamed parts ulcerate and break, the usual treatment is to dress them 
with a little spermaceti-ointment to each ounce of which a few grains of 
tannic acid have been added. If glycerine (somewhat thickened, or not, with 
a little arrow-root) be substituted for the spermaceti- ointment, or a small 
portion of glycerine be well triturated with the ointment, a still more 
effective remedy will be produced. In all cases care should be taken to 
cleanse the ulcers with warm water at each renewal of the dressing. 

WHAT TO DO FOR CHILBLAINS. 

Persons subject to chilblains should be particular to wipe their 
hands thoroughly dry after washing them, and would do well to continue 
the friction with the towel for two or three minutes afterwards. It will 
tend to prevent their accession. 

Swelled and distorted finger-joints, arising from rheumatism, rheu- 
matic gout, and the like, may generally be greatly relieved, and fre- 
quently wholly cured, by the free use of fresh lemon-juice internally, 
and a hot and strong solution of common soda, as an embrocation. Even 
enlarged finger-joints containing the gouty excretions popularly called 
" chalk-stones" will, in general, yield to this treatment, if it be freeh- 
and perseveringly carried out. Old distortions and enlargements of the 
kind, remaining after the disease that produced them has passed away, 
will frequently yield to painting them every night, or every other night, 
W4th tincture of iodine. 

Warts, like chilblains, are too well known to require description. 



470 THE NECK AND UMBS. 

They chiefly attack the hands, and particularly the fingers ; but some- 
times occur on other portions of the body. They may be removed by 
rubbing or moistening their extremities every day, or every other day, with 
lunar caustic (fused nitrate of silver), nitric acid, concentrated acetic acid, 
or aromatic vinegar ; care being taken not to wash the hands for some 
hours after. The first is an extremely convenient and manageable 
substance, from not being liable to drop or spread ; but it produces a 
black stain, which remains till the cauterized surface peels off. The 
second produces a yellow stain, in depth proportioned to the strength of the 
acid employed. This also wears off after the lapse of a few days. The 
others scarcely discolor the skin, 

MAGIC CURE FOR WARTS. 

Warts often disappear under the influence of the imagination, and 
strong mental excitement, in a very singular way. Thus, among the 
ignorant and superstitious, amulets and incantations, and u touches ' J 
with substances that cannot possibly exert the slightest chemical, dyna- 
mical, or pl^siological action on the part, supported by a lively faith, 
are not infrequently sufficient to cause their disappearance. The sudden 
confusion and embarrassment into which a sensitive and nervous person 
is thrown, by being unexpectedly accused of something of which he is 
entirely innocent, will also sometimes produce a like effect. 

Warts are also sometimes produced by agencies that are apparently 
insufficient for the purpose. Thus, blowing on the back of the hands, 
or on the face, with a pair of bellows, has been known occasionally to be 
followed by a crop of warts on the part. 

The human foot is a wonderful piece of organic mechanism com- 
posed of many bones, ligaments, muscles, and tendons, associated with 
arteries, veins, nerves and other vessels. In order to secure in the foot 
the requisite firmness in standing, it is articulated with the leg at right 
angles, so that the heel and toes touch the ground ; and the joint is 
placed nearer the posterior than the anterior part of the foot, so as to 
increase the base of support in that direction towards which the body 
tends most to fall ; besides which, the weight is here received on the 
inner side of the foot where it is most arched, thereby offering not only 
the advantage of a strong support, but one which is highly elastic, 
yielding without injury in alighting on the feet, and acting as a spring 
in progression. 



THE NECK AND LIMBS. 471 

A beautiful foot is one which is small, rather than large, in pro- 
portion to the leg and stature, and of which the instep is high, or mod- 
erately high, and arched ; of which the waist, or portion under the 
instep, is hollowed and well raised above the level of the sole, with the 
toes regular and well developed, the heel narrow and non-protruding, and 
its general outline long, slender, and graceful. 

Among females, a very small foot possessing these proportions is 
considered the acme of beauty. The agility of foot and the pedestrian 
powers of the individual, other matters being equal, are in exact rela- 
tion to the degree in which the above-mentioned qualities are present. 
The protruding heel and flat foot of the negro, and of some of the races 
of the Russian empire, are peculiarities, if not deformities, which 
render their possessors clumsy in gait, and incapable of continued long 

journeys. 

HEALTH AND BEAUTY OF THE FEET. 

The health and beauty of the foot is promoted by exercise, easy- 
fitting and appropriate boots or shoes being worn. Walking, dancing, 
running, and skipping, whether taken as exercise or indulged in for 
amusement, are thus to be recommended, independent of their value in a 
hygienic point of view. 

To preserve the feet in a thoroughly healthy and comfortable state, 
the first object of attention should be cleanliness — thorough cleanliness. 
For this purpose they should be frequently soaked and well washed in 
warm or tepid water, good yellow soap being freely used to remove the 
dirt and perspiration which accumulate about them. This should be 
done, if possible, every day in summer, every other da}' in spring and 
autumn, and twice a week in winter. The appropriate time for the oper- 
ation is at night, before retiring to rest. 

Once a week, after soaking, washing, and drying them with the 
towel, but whilst still soft from the action of the water, the feet should be 
carefully examined, loose portions of skin removed by friction with a de- 
part of the towel or with the fingers, and callosities or indurations reduced 
by the finger-nails, or by rubbing them with a piece of pumice-stone. About 
once a fortnight, on a similar occasion, the nails of the toes should be 
inspected, when such of them that require it should be pared with a 
sharp penknife, to prevent them becoming inconveniently long or growing 
into the flesh. Their proper length is that of the toes ; and the shape of 
their extremities, that of the natural curve of the part. 



472 THE NECK AND LIMBS. 

If they are allowed to grow beyond the ends of the toes, they are 
liable to be forced back and distorted by the pressure of the boot or shoe, 
and to grow into the flesh ; whilst if they are shorter, or much shorter, 
than the toes, the extremities of the latter lose their natural support. 
Nails that have a tendency to spread sidewise and to grow into the flesh 
— a thing that always originates in pressure — should be kept carefully 
pared at the sides or offending part. 

It is highly necessary to the preservation of health to keep the feet 
dry, and to shelter them from cold and sudden changes of temperature. 
Persons who are exposed to the wet or cold, or who are frequently pas- 
sengers through the public streets in bad weather, should, therefore, 
regard sound and good boots and shoes as of the first importance. In a 
hygienic point of view, a wet back should be less shunned than wet or 

cold feet. 

COLDS CAUSED BY WET FEET. 

Damp feet are, as a necessary consequence, always cold; for it is one 
of the natural laws that u evaporation produces cold," and the way a wet 
or damp foot becomes dry is by the conversion of the water into vapor, 
the latent heat necessary to the existence of the latter being derived from 
the sensible heat of the feet. We may trace one half (certainly a vast 
number) of the consumptions of this country to cold suddenly applied to 
the feet, by which the sensible exhalation is checked ; and it is not suffi- 
ciently impressed upon the mind that when once the regular perspira- 
tion from the feet is checked, it is a matter of the utmost difficulty to 
restore it. 

The nightly foot-bath or pediluvium is in vain had recourse to, 
although the natural instinct of the human mind has shown that this is 
the best remedy; the reasons for which it is required are overlooked, and 
the simple warmth it produces is thought to be all that is required. 
Hence spring up a host of maladies which owe their origin to inattention 
to the humbler parts, as they are considered, of the human frame — the 
feet and toes ; but which, in fact, are as important members of the body 
corporate as are any structures of more complicated organization." 

Tender feet generally arise from the neglect of cleanliness, the use 
of thin cotton or silk stockings, and boots or shoes that are either too 
tight or stiff, or misshaped, or not sufficiently porous to admit of the 
escape of the perspiration. Of these, tight boots and shoes and water- 
proof ones, which are also air-tight, are the most common causes of 



THE NECK AND LIMBS. 47? 

tender feet, as also of headaches, dizziness, dyspepsia, diarrhoea, and even 
apoplexy. 

Boots and shoes too narrow across the toes or the tread of the foot, or 
insufficiently long for ease and comfort, though large enough elsewhere, 
either cramp and distort the fore part of the foot and toes, or arrest the 
nails in their forward growth, forcing them back upon the sensitive flesh 
at their roots and sides, and causing them to grow in thickness and width 
only. The results may be gradual, but are always painful. 

The best treatment of tender feet is soaking them nightly in tepid 
water, to which a handful of bran may be added, or not, at will. When 
the tenderness is extreme and persistent, a little powdered borax or sal- 
ammoniac should be added to the water. In all cases woollen or worsted 
stockings or socks, and boots or shoes with uppers of buckskin, goatskin, 
French calf, or some equally soft kind of leather, should be worn. 

FEEBLE STATE OP CIRCULATION. 

Coldness of the feet indicates delicate health, and a feeble state of the 
circulation. It should be met by active exercise and friction, the use of 
warm woollen stockings, and efforts to improve the general tone of the 
system. The coldness and numbness of the feet common in the debili- 
tated and aged may also be treated in a similar manner ; but here the 
socks or stockings may be advantageously kept on throughout the night, 
or, at all events, until the feet become comfortably warm. When this 
proves insufficient, a foot-warmer filled with hot water may be placed in 
the bed. 

The peculiar and very disagreeable odor evolved by the feet of some 
persons in hot weather generally arises from unnatural perspiration, 
insufficient attention to cleanliness, and from wearing cotton stockings 
and non-ventilating boots or shoes. The remedy is obvious. The feet 
should be soaked and washed nightly in warm water, good yellow soap 
being at the same time freely used, thin woolen stockings, of which a 
clean pair should be put on daily, should be alone worn, and boots or 
shoes adopted which are, light, easy, and permeable to the perspiration. 
When this fails, a teaspoonful of good chloride of lime, or about twice 
that quantity of sal-ammonia, or even of common salt, or a tea-cupful of 
strong vinegar, may be added to the water in which the feet are soaked. 
the use of soap being at the same time omitted. 

Sore feet produced by walking, violent exercise, or in any other 



474 THE NECK AND LIMBS. 

similar manner, may be treated as noticed above under " tender feet." 
Abrasions, after soaking and washing them, should be protected by a 
piece of common strapping or sticking-plaster, or a piece of lint spread 
with spermaceti -ointment, the dressing in either case being bound on with 
a strip of thin soft rag. 

If bladders have formed, they should be opened, and the water or 
serum which they contain should be pressed out. When they occur on 
parts where the skin is thin and delicate, it will be sufficient to pass a 
coarse needle through them ; but where the skin is thick and hard, as on 
the heels and balls of the large toes, this is insufficient for the purpose. 
In this case the central part of the bladder should be pinched up between 
the thumb and finger, and the skin freely snipped, completely through, 
with the points of a pair of sharp scissors. 

REMEDIES THAT ARE RECOMMENDED. 

The whole of the water being then pressed out, the part should be 
covered with a couple of folds of soft rag, to protect the opening from 
the stocking, and to allow the escape of serum, which will generally 
continue to ooze out for some time. The loose skin should not be 
detached for some days, or until a new portion of cuticle has formed 
under it. 

If it be done before, the raw and tender surface of the cutis will be 
exposed, and will often, for some time, occasion much pain and inconveni- 
ence. The stiffness resulting from long pedestrian excursions, and, if 
not attended to, often lasting several days, may be treated by hot knee- 
baths or foot-baths, or, better still, by a general hot vapor-bath or a 
Turkish bath. 

Chilblains in the feet have been noticed in speaking of chilblains of 
the hands. The causes, prevention, and treatment, of the two are essen- 
tially similar. The feet, however, owing to the less vigorous circulation 
of the blood in them, are the more liable to chilblains. In addition to 
what has been already said on the subject, it may be remarked that soak- 
ing the feet, before retiring to rest, in warm water to which a handful of 
bran, and two or three teaspoonfuls of sal-ammoniac, have been added, 
is very useful either for preventing them, or relieving them when formed. 

Corns are horny indurations of the skin, with a central nucleus very 
sensitive at the base, and occur on the exposed portions of the joints of 
the toes. The common cause of them is continued pressure or friction 



THE NECK AND LIMBS. 475 

on the projections of the bones from tight, stiff, or ill-fitting boots or 
shoes. This suggests the means of their prevention, which, in addition 
to cleanliness, consists essentially in wearing easy-fitting, soft boots and 
shoes. If this be neglected, corns are almost certain to form ; and they 
will as certainly reappear, however often, and however perfectly, they 
may be removed. 

The curative treatment of corns is very simple, though often some- 
what troublesome and tedious. After soaking them for some minutes in 
warm water, to soften them, they should be pared, with a sharp penknife, 
as close as possible without causing pain or making them bleed, observ- 
ing to extract as much of the central portion of the base — popularly, but 
incorrectly, called the " root " — as possible. The pared surface of the 
corn, and particularly its central and upper portion, may now be touched 
over with any substance capable of destroying the vitality of the indu- 
rated cuticle, or at least the part of it next the surface, and thus causing 
it in a few days to separate or permit its removal. 

TREATMENT OF CORNS. 

For this purpose caustics or corrosives are employed. Of these the 
most convenient and manageable, and the one most in favor, is fused 
nitrate of silver, or lunar caustic. This substance, held between paper to 
shield the fingers, is used by simply rubbing it on the corn, previously 
slightly moistened with water. Nitric acid, concentrated acetic acid or 
strong aromatic vinegar, and strong tincture of iodine or iodine paint, are 
other effective substances which are frequently employed to remove eorns. 

Being liquid and highly corrosive, the surface of the corn is moist- 
ened with them by means of a strip of wood, or, preferably, a small rod of 
glass, due care being taken not to allow the liquid to spread or touch the 
neighboring parts, or, in conveying them, to drop on the skin or dress. 
After the application of either the caustic or one of the liquids mentioned, 
the parts medicated should be left uncovered for a short time until quite 
dry. In the course of three or four days a portion of the cuticle, more or 
less thick, disorganized by the action of the remedy, will begin to detach 
itself, and may be removed with the nail, either at once or after soaking the 
foot for a short time in warm water. The application of the caustic, or 
the liquid, and the whole treatment, should then be repeated, and again 
every third or fourth day, until a cure is effected, soft, loose shoes being, 
as far as possible, worn during the whole time. 



476 THE NECK AND LIMBS. 

Some writers recommend ligatures of silk for the removal of large 
corns. The silk is applied as close to the base of the corn as possible, 
and is tightened daily until they drop off. This plan is tedious, is often 
very painful, and particularly inconvenient when the patient is compelled 
to wear ordinary boots or shoes during the day; and, further, is not 
always successful. 

Another mode of extirpating corns, sometimes adopted, and with 

greater success than the last one, is the application of a small blister. 

This will frequently raise them, with the skin, out of their beds, and 

permit of their complete removal. The delicate exposed surface must 

then be dressed with a little simple ointment, spread on lint, and this 

must be retained in its place by a slight bandage formed by a strip of soft 

calico. 

PUMICE STONE AND ADHESIVE PLASTERS. 

Among methods, purely mechanical, for the cure of corns, two 
particularly deserve notice. The one is, to wear upon the toe, or part 
affected, a small circular piece of soft buckskin, spread with any adhesive 
plaster, and having a hole punched in the centre corresponding to the size 
of the corn. In this way the pressure of the boot or shoe is equalized, and 
the apex of the corn protected from injury ; by which the pain is at 
once relieved, and, provided the prominent surface of the corn be occa- 
sionally pared, a radical cure is ultimately effected. 

The other method above referred to, is to gradually reduce the corn 
by nightly rubbing it, in the dry and hard state, with the flat surface of a 
piece of pumice-stone, or with a piece of glass, sand, or emery-paper. The 
relief afforded will increase daily until the extirpation be complete. 

Soft corns, or those that occur between the toes, may generally be 
cured, as well as prevented forming, by daily scraping the part, whilst soft 
and moist, with the edge of a penknife, or with the finger-nail, so as to 
remove as much of the thickened and disorganized cuticle as possible. 
When this does not succeed, a little soap-cerate, spread on a piece of lint 
or soft rag, may be placed as a " dressing " between the toes and renewed 
daily; soaking the feet in warm water, and scraping the part, being also 
adopted. 

Slightly rubbing the prominent parts with lunar caustic, or slightly 
moistening them with strong vinegar, or with tincture of iodine, every 
second or third day, will also remove them. When these substances are 
used, the toes should be kept apart until the skin becomes dry, when a 



THE NECK AND LIMBS. 



477 



strip of paper, or thin calico, should be placed between them. A common 
remedy for soft corns, among the vulgar, is a piece of ivy-leaf that has 
been soaked in vinegar. It is renewed daily. 

A bunion is a species of corn or swelling on the ball, or the chief 
joint, of the great toe, resulting from pressure and the irritation produced 
by friction. The treatment recommended for u corns" applies, for the 
most part, also to bunions ; but in consequence of their greater extent, 
and the greater degree of irritation accompanying them, the cure is more 
tedious. 





FOOD FOR INVALIDS 





■ ^ — g^ 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

ONCERNING the invalid's tray, it should be arranged as 
daintily as possible ; serve only the amount she can take, 
for many times the sight of a large quantity of food 
will cause nausea and render it impossible to taste 
a particle. And before feeding bathe the hands and 
face with a cloth wrung out in hot water. Good 
nurses omit this sometimes, but the refreshment 
gained thereby often gives a relish to the food. Never 
leave food standing by a patient with the hope that an 
appetite may be aroused by its presence. Remove at once 
and serve again later on, in fresh dishes if necessary. 

Dishes should be heated if the food is to be served hot and kept cold 
if to be served cold. Custards should be set in ice or in pans of cold 
water. Serve food to the sick at regular intervals, even if only a table^ 
spoonful can be taken at once ; it will help keep her strength. In drop- 
ping medicine into a spoon, place the handle between the leaves of a 
closed book lying on the table, and theu both hands may be used in 
dropping the mixture. For nausea scorch some rice, pour boiling water 
over it, and drink as hot as possible. 

SOME DON'TS FOR the SICK ROOM. — Don't make unnecessary 
noise. Don't let doors squeak ; oil them. Don't whisper. Don't make 
noticable and exaggerated efforts at being quiet. Don't speak of simi- 
lar cases with fatal terminations. Don't admit tearful visitors. Don't 
keep the room too hot. Don't forget frequent ventilation. Don't raise a 
dust. Don't forget to bathe the patient's face and hands frequently and 
wash the teeth and mouth. 

Don't give stimulants unless ordered by the physician. Don't wake 
patient from a sound sleep to administer medicine. Don't ask the patient 
" how she feels " every few moments. Don't taste the patient's food with 
her spoon. Don't masticate loudly and cheerfully yourself while the 
patient is dieting. Don't prepare food in the sick room. Don't ask the 
patient what she wants to eat. Don't fail to have plenty of fresh, clean 
478 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 479 

towels. Don't let cold food get hot, or hot food get cold. Don't let food 
stand by the bed. Don't bring too mnch food at a time. Don't wet the 
bedclothing and dress in feeding the patient. Don't make her drink too 
fast. Don't leave bureau drawers open and shades crooked. Don't yawn 
frequently and unreservedly. Don't jar the bed. Don't rock vigorously 
and continuously. Don't introduce mournful and suggestive subjects. 
In a word, don't forget that a sick person, if conscious at all, is apt to 
have painfully acute perceptions and sensibilities, on which trifles jar in 
a superlative degree. When a patient cannot be raised from the bed 
without risk of exhaustion, a medicine tube or crockery feeder should be 
used, but the same appliance, or even one of the same appearance, should 
not be used for administering both food and medicine. 

TO KEEP CRACKED ICE. — Take an ordinary porcelain pudding dish. 
Over the top tie a large square of clean, old white flannel. Inside the 
dish let the flannel bag down so as, by all but an inch, to touch the 
porcelain bottom. Set as much ice as will be needed for a time into this 
flannel bag, and cover it by throwing back the long points hanging out- 
side the dish. Thus suspended and covered, the ice melts very slowly, 
even in a warm room. 

When a feverish patient demands a bit every few moments, a neat 
little home-made device for cracking silently little lumps of ice, as they 
are required, is made from a large cork. Into one end insert the head of 
a No. 8 needle. By merely pressing the cork down with a thimbled 
finger, the needle quickly splits the ice apart. It is well to cut a tiny 
opening in the bottom of the flannel bag, that it may drain more quickly. 
Crushed ice can be prepared in a couple of minutes by chopping off a 
piece from the large cake with an ice-pick ; put the piece that is to be 
crushed in a clean coarse cloth ; gather the corners of the cloth, and 
bang it two a three times against any unbreakable surface, as a stone 
hearth, iron sink, etc. Rinse the ice first, and use a clean cloth, and the 
crushed ice will be perfectly clean. 

NOURISHING DRINKS. 

When the temperature reaches 101 degrees or over, the sick 
person should be fed liquids only, because the power of the stomach 
to digest food is impaired, and it needs assistance. Besides this, 
when there is loss of appetite, the sufferer will relish food in liquid 
form after she turns in disgust from delicacies in solid. There are a 



480 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

great variety of nutritive foods, easily prepared, to tempt the palal 
among which are arrowroot, cornstarch, clam juice, jellies, such as cal 
foot jelly, wine or lemon jelly, meat jelly, wine whey. Mutton broth is 
healing ; and then there is barley gruel, rice gruel, flour gruel, oatmeal 
gruel, Indian meal gruel, and sago gruel. 

APPLE water. — Pare and slice a fine, juicy apple. Pour i large 
cupful of boiling water over it. Cover and let stand until cold. Or, 
roast 2 nice tart apples ; do not burn. Cut them up, and pour over them 
i pint of boiling water. Let cool. Either of these will be found a 
refreshing drink. They may be sweetened slightly, if liked, and a 
couple of cloves may be added. This is an excellent drink for a feverish 
cold. 

tamarind water. — Over i glass tumbler of tamarinds, pour i 
pint of cold water. Let stand i hour before using, then strain. 

RICE water. — Rice water is a pleasant drink for children and 
invalids. Boil a teacup ful of rice in 3 pints of water. Allow it to 
simmer gently for three-quarters of an hour, when strain it and sweeten 
a little, if liked. At times when choleraic disorders are prevalent, a stick 
of cinnamon boiled in it makes a comforting beverage. Raisins boiled 
in it, give it a pleasant flavor ; so also does the thin yellow rind of a 
lemon. 

barley water.— A favorite, as well as nourishing drink for 
invalids, is barley water. To prepare it, place a quart of water in a 
saucepan over the fire. Wash well 2 ounces of pearl barley, and throw 
into the water. Bring it to boiling point, then add lemon and sugar to 
suit the taste. Draw the pan to the back of the fire, and simmer gently 
2 hours. Strain, and cover until cold. It should be reduced about one- 
half when done. 

CRUST COFFEE. — Brown crusts of wheat bread or Graham biscuits 
in the oven until thoroughly toasted through, but not burned. Break 
in pieces, and pour boiling water over them. Let steep, and serve as 
ordinary coffee, with cream and sugar. Very wholesome for dyspeptics. 

toast water. — Make as above for Crust Coffee, but not so strong, 
and give it cold, without milk or sugar, as a drink. 

CORNMEAL COFFEE. — Put i pint of coarse corn meal into a bowl, 
and pour over it a pint of boiling water ; stir till well mixed ; add a 
cupful of cold water, a tablespoonful of molasses, a pinch of salt, and 1 
pint of coarse wheat or oatmeal. Stir well together ; dust a dripping-pan 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 481 

with cornmeal, and pour in the batter. Bake until browned, in hot oven. 
When ready to make the coffee, split the cake, put it in the oven to 
brown, but do not scorch ; break it into pieces, and put it into a large 
earthenware pitcher. Pour i quart of boiling water over it. Simmer for 
an hour or longer. Serve with sugar and cream. It can be made of the 
cornmeal alone. It is most excellent for dyspeptics, who cannot use 
coffee without injury. 

linseed TEA. — Place in a jug i ounce of bruised linseed, 2 drachms, 
bruised licorice-root, half ounce white sugar and 2 t&blespoonfuls of 
lemon juice, and pour over them one pint of boiling water. Cover 
tightly, and digest for three or four hours near a fire. Strain through 
linen before using. This makes a mucilaginous liquid, possessing 
demulcent properties, and of special value in bronchial affections. 

OATMEAL SHRUB. — Put 4 ounces of fine, fresh oatmeal into a jar, 
add 6 ounces of white sugar and the juice of a lemon. Moisten \, c h 
lukewarm water enough to mix ; then pour over 1 gallon of boilin & 
water, stirring thoroughly. Let settle; use cold. This is a very 
strengthening and and refreshing drink, expecially for invalids. The 
flavoring may be varied to suit the taste. It is often used without either 
sugar or flavoring. 

barley water, WITH WHITE OF EGG. — Take a tablespoonful of 
coarse barley, and wash well with cold water, rejecting the washings. 
Then boil for an hour or more with a pint and a half of clean water, in 
a covered vessel or saucepan. Add a pinch of salt, enough sugar to 
render palatable, and strain. To 4 or 6 ounces of barley water thus pre- 
pared add the white of 1 egg. The value of this preparation in gastro- 
intestinal inflammation and irritation is not easily overestimated. In the 
entero-colitis of very young infants its exclusive administration for 
thirty-six or forty-eight hours will often relieve when all other measures 
have failed. 

CANNED GRAPE-JUICE. — Cook the grapes 1 hour, or until soft. 
Strain through a fine strainer and cook the juice once more, adding 1 
cupful of sugar to 1 cupful of juice. Boil well and put in glass jars. 

TEA and milk. — An English physician has a formula for tea and 
milk, designed for persons with weak digestion who like the slight 
stimulant of tea, but are unable to use it as ordinarily prepared. The 
milk is put into a saucepan cold, with the requisite amount of tea in an 
infuser or loosely tied in a muslin bag. The milk is then allowed to 
31 



482 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

come slowly to the boil, and the moment the boiling point is reached the 
vessel must be taken from the fire and its contents quickly strained into 
a carefully-heated teapot. This concoction is said to be pleasant to drink 
and unwholesome to no one. 

HOT MILK. — Milk heated just below the boiling point and sipped 
slowly as hot as possible, is nourishing and stimulating as well, and will 
give good results, if substituted, in many cases, for wines, etc. 

MILK AND LIME WATER. — In cases where much nourishment 
must be administered in the form of milk and lime water, it is well to know 
the proportions are always an ounce of lime water to an ounce of milk 
mixed, to be used at the time the patient requires it. 

MILK PUNCH. — Milk punch is useful where there is great weakness 
and little nourishment can be taken. Heat about one-half cup of milk 
and water, sweeten to taste and add 2 teaspoonfuls good whisky. 

STRENGTHENING CHOCOLATE. — Take i pint of the best chocolate, 
1 pound of rice flour, one-fourth pound arrowroot, one-half pound sifted 
loaf sugar. Thoroughly mix and rub together. A dessert-spoonful of 
this compound should be slightly moistened with milk and then stirred 
into a pint of boiling milk. 

MULLED WINE. — Put into one-half cup cold water 3 cloves, one 
inch cinnamon and a grating of nutmeg. Cover, set in a pan of water 
and cook 10 minutes, not allowing it to boil. Add one-half cup claret 
wine, cook 10 minutes longer, strain and serve at once. Sweeten or not 
as taste dictates. You may vary it and make it more nutritious by add- 
ing an Qgg^ the white and yolk beaten separately, with half a tablespoon- 
ful of sugar ; pour into the wine and serve at once. This is a drink 
that our grandmothers gave for a cold, and it is equally efficacious to-day. 
For preparing it never use a tin cup, as the acid of the wine would 
render the beverage unwholesome. 

RENNET WHEY. — One pint of scalding milk, not boiling ; 1 table- 
spoonful prepared rennet, or piece of rennet skin that has been soaked 
in water. Sweeten to taste and strain. It will be ready for use when cool. 

WINE WHEY. — One quart of new milk, heat to boiling point, take 
one-half teaspoonful of cream of tartar, 2 dessertspoonfuls of sherry 
wine, and put into the milk, let it simmer a few minutes, when the curds 
are formed, strain off. It is a cooling and slightly laxative drink; it is 
used when the patient can keep nothing on the stomach. Sweeten to 
taste with white sugar. 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS.- 483 

BUTTERMILK WHEY. — Boil the required quantity of fresh butter- 
milk. Season with a pinch of salt, a little loaf sugar, and nutmeg, if 
liked. Pour the whey off carefully. 

MULLED BUTTERMILK, OR BUTTERMILK POP. — Rub a scant table- 
spoonful of butter into a teacup of flour, wet it up to thin paste with cold 
buttermilk, and pour into it 2 quarts of boiling fresh buttermilk ; salt to 
the taste. 

EGG NOG. — Beat the yolk of an egg in a tumbler with two teaspoon - 
fuls brandy, and the same of sugar, level. Beat the white of the egg to a 
stiff froth, mix thoroughly with the yolk, and fill the glass with milk. 
Some patients cannot take egg and must have brandy and milk alone. 
Others take brandy and egg without milk, while the larger number take 
egg and milk alone. Some physicians advise using the yolk of the egg 
only. 

EGG WINE. — Beat up a fresh egg until smooth and thick ; add a 
teaspoonful of powdered loaf sugar ; stir in a glass of best port wine. This, 
when permitted, is very strengthening, or a tablespoonful of brandy or 
whiskey ; cracked ice in the glass is an improvement. 

EGG MILK. — Beat a fresh egg until very light. Stir into a glass of 
new milk. Sweeten to taste and flavor with either nutmeg or lemon. 
Very strengthening. A pleasant change in the preparation of egg milk 
is to break the egg into a pint basin, and add about a tablespoonful of 
water ; take away the white speck, and then beat evenly with a small 
whisk or fork until it becomes light ; then add very gradually a gill of 
milk, heated to boiling point, beating all the time and continue until the 
whole is a fine foam. A little sugar and sherry or brandy may be added 
if liked. This way will be found to do awaj^ with a certain rawness of 
taste that is complained of so often. Sometimes it is a change to place 
this drink on ice until cold. 

BRANDY COCOA. — Scald i cup of milk ; mix one teaspoon of sugar 
with 1 tablespoon of boiling water and 1 teaspoon of cocoa ; add it to the 
milk ; cook over hot water 5 minutes; add one-half tablespoon ot brandy 
and serve. A plain cocoa for the sick is to be made with boiling water, 
not milk. When serving add cream and sugar to the taste, or sugar only. 

EGG COFFEE. — The invalid who is tired of taking egg tonic mixed 
with sherry, and who dislikes the taste of a raw egg, may enjoy the 1 
disguised in a cup of coffee. Prepare the coffee to the taste with cream 
and sugar, keeping it very hot until ready tor the egg, which must be 



484 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

beaten thoroughly in another cup and the prepared coffee added by 
degrees. Drink it hot, and it will be found not only palatable, but 
strengthening. 

TEMPERANCE EGG-NOG. — Take a tall lemonade glass and fill it 
half-full of cracked ice. Break into it two fresh eggs, and pour in half a 
pint of milk, with just enough sugar to sweeten to the taste. Then 
shake it well and strain into another ice-cold glass. Top it off with a 
dash of nutmeg. Cooling and delicious. 

MULLED JELLY. — One tablespoon ful of currant jelly beaten with 
the white of an egg^ and a little loaf sugar ; pour over this one pint of 
boiling water, and break into it a slice of dry toast. This is very 
palatable. 

LEMONADE. — For an invalid it should be made of the juice only. 
Squeeze about a tablespoonful of juice into a tumbler, add sugar to taste 
and fill tumbler with fresh w T ater. 

hot lemonade. — This is made same as cold lemonade, save that 
boiling water is used. This is very useful in case of sudden colds. 

FLAXSEED LEMONADE. — Flaxseed lemonade for coughs, colds and 
hoarseness is one of the old-fashioned woman's recipes. To make it, put 
two tablespoon fuls of sugar, and three tablespoonfuls of whole flaxseed 
into a pint of hot water. Steep an hour, strain, add the juice of one 
lemon, and set on ice until cold. If preferred, it may be drunk hot. 

MILK LEMONADE. — Sugar, i}4 pounds, dissolved in a quart of boil- 
ing water, together with half a pint of lemon juice and i}4 pints of milk. 
This makes a cooling, agreeable, nourishing beverage. 

BROTHS FOR THE SICK ROOM. 

BEEF JUICE. — Slice juicy lean beef from the round, an inch thick, 
broil it quickly over a very hot fire, but without burning, until it is brown 
on both sides, lay it in a hot soup plate, cut it through in all parts with a 
very sharp knife, and set another hot plate on it, with the bottom against 
the meat; then grasp both plates firmly and press them together, squeez- 
ing the juice from the meat; let it run into another dish. This is the 
only perfect form of beef tea. Season to taste, or take in its natural 
state. A quick way to express the juice is to cut the hot meat in small 
pieces and squeeze with a lemon squeezer, or small juice extractor. The 
juice should be caught in a hot cup. It can be given to the youngest 
infant, as well as to adults. 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 485 

It is the best food preparation to administer during the severity of 
an attack of any hot-weather disease. Give in teaspoonful to tablespoon- 
ful quantities at short intervals, say from 15 minutes to 2 hours, depend- 
ing upon the urgency of the case. It may be given hot, or, if there is 
much nausea, it may be poured over a little shaved ice and then admin- 
istered. Extract of beef, if pure, contains nothing but the flavoring 
matter of the meat from which it is prepared. It is, therefore, not a food 
at all, but a stimulant, and should be classed with tea and coffee. It 
should never be given to a sick person unless specially prescribed by a 
competent physician. Its strong meaty taste is deceptive, and a person 
depending upon it alone for food would die of starvation. 

beef TEA. — One pound of lean beef (not one scrap of fat must be 
admitted) cut in small bits and put in a wide-mouthed bottle without 
water; cork closely, set in a kettle of cold water, bring to a boil and keep 
boiling for 3 or 4 hours, until the meat in the bottle is like white rags. 
Press out the j uice and season with a little salt. This troublesome way 
of making beef tea used to be considered the only method, but either of 
the above given are preferable. 

MOULDED BEEF TEA. — Put a pound of lean beef, cut fine, into a 
porcelain-lined stew-pan, with a pint of cold water. Let it stand half an 
hour, and then put it on the stove, where it will heat gradually. While 
boiling hot skim carefully, and put it where it will simmer gently for half 
an hour. When this is cooking, put a third of a box of gelatine in two 
tablespoonfuls of cold water. Salt the broth to taste, and strain, boiling 
hot, over the gelatine. Stir till dissolved. Strain into cups or moulds. 
Set away to cool on ice. This will be found a very desirable change to 
the invalid. The other beef teas can be moulded in the same manner, 
adding gelatine in quantities according to the amount of tea. 4 

FROZEN BEEF TEA. — Put cold beef tea in a small pail, set in a 
wooden bucket, and surround it with salt and crushed ice. Let stand 10 
minutes, then take off the cover and scrape the congealed beef tea from 
the sides. Beat well and then put back the cover. Do this two or three 
times, and the tea will be frozen smooth. This is excellent for invalids 
who must have all their food cold. 

QUICK BEEF TEA. — A quick method of preparing a nourishing beef 
tea is as follows : Take any desired quantity of steak from the top part 
of the round, as this has less fat and more juice than any other part ot 
the ox; remove every morsel of fat, and divide the meat into small pieces. 



486 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

cutting across the grain ; put the meat in a dry saucepan and allow it to 
sweat for 5 minutes over a slow fire, stirring occasionally to prevent 
sticking. 

This is how all beef essences are prepared. After sweating for 5 
minutes you will find the meat white in color and surrounded by a very 
rich, nourishing gravy, which, in cases of great exhaustion, may be given 
in this form. When using beef tea for invalids, a teaspoonful of the best 
whiskey adds greatly to its flavor and serves as a stimulant for the 
patient. This is especially good for grip during the convalescent stage. 

To warm up beef tea, put in a cup, and set the cup in boiling water. 
The use of meat juice for medical purposes is a growing one, and is 
recommended for the aged, delicate infants and invalids, in all cases 
where complete nourishment is required in a concentrated form. 

CLAM BROTH. — Simmer chopped clams in their own broth with an 
equal quantity of water, the broth strained through fine muslin, and sea- 
soned with pepper. Hot milk may be added, and the whole served with 
toasted crackers. 

CLAM frappe. — Wash thoroughly 20 clams, and put them in a 
stew-pan with one-half cup cold water ; cover closely and steam until the 
shells open. Strain the liquid, cool, and freeze it to a mush. Serve in 
glasses. A small amount may be frozen easily in a baking-powder can 
by setting it in a tin pail and packing with ice and salt in equal propor- 
tions. The mixture will freeze in about half an hour, and should be 
stirred once or twice during that time. This clam-juice is also very often 
diluted and served hot, and in some cases of gastric inflammation will be 
retained by the stomach when almost everything else is rejected. 

VEAL BROTH. — Two pounds of knuckle of veal cracked into pieces 
and put over the fire with 2 quarts of cold water. Cover and cook slowly 
until it is reduced to 1 quart. Strain and season with salt. Meanwhile, 
soak 3 tablespoonfuls of pearl sago in a cup of cold water, heat by setting 
the dish in a pan of boiling water for half an hour, and stir occasionally. 
Put the strained broth in a double boiler and add the warmed sago to it, 
cook half an hour, and then stir into it 1 cup of cream heated to the 
boiling-point, and the well-beaten yolks of 2 fresh eggs. Let all only 
come to a boil, and remove from the fire at once. Serve as soon as 
possible. 

nutritious beef BROTH. — Allow a pint of cold water to a pound 
of lean beef (round steak preferable) cut in dice. Stir until the water 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 487 

boils ; it must not boil again, but simmer gently for 5 or 10 minutes, 
until all the juice is drawn out ; then strain carefully into a bowl, and 
if there is a particle of fat on top, remove it with a piece of brown unsized 
paper. By this method you may take off every star of fat without wast- 
ing a drop of the beef tea, as is done when using a ladle or spoon. In 
this way you may have strong beef tea in 20 minutes. 

MUTTON broth. — This is often ordered for invalids. It should be 
made as plainly as possible, and so as to secure the juice of the meat. 
Boil slowly about 2 pounds of lean mutton for two hours ; skim it very 
carefully as it simmers, and do not put in much salt. Some vegetables 
may be added as a seasoning, and for some broths a little barley or rice. 

CREAM SOUP. — Sago, pearl tapioca, barley or rice may be used. Take 
any white stock that is rich and well seasoned. Put into a saucepan a 
half-pint of the stock and the same quantity of cream. When it comes 
to a boil, add 1 tablespoonful of flour thoroughly moistened with cold 
milk, and let it boil up once. Have the tapioca or whatever you wish to 
use in the soup cooked, and add it to the soup and serve. Barley requires 
2 hours to cook, rice 1 hour ; sago and pearl tapioca must be soaked in 
cold water half an hour and cooked the same length of time. 

CHICKEN BROTH. — Boil a common-sized chicken in 2 quarts of water 
(the water must be cold at first) ; cover and cook until the meat is ready 
to fall to pieces. Strain, let simmer, adding 4 or 5 tablespoonfuls of 
milk and a little salt and pepper. A tablespoonful of well-soaked rice or 
pearl barley may be added also ; boil slowly one half-hour if this is done. 
Serve with dry toast. The meat of the chicken will make a very nice 
chicken salad for the family. Or, if the patient is sufiiciently convales- 
cent, make it into a Paulet a la creyne for his use. 

PAULET A LA CREME.— Chop the cooked chicken to a powder, 
rub through a wire sieve, mix with a little cream and 2 well-beaten eggs, 
and season with salt. Put in a mould, press, strain, and serve it hot or 
cold, cut in slices. 

GRUELS FOR SICK PERSONS. 

Gruels are generally ordered when there is fever. And gruel, prop- 
erly made, is nourishing and palatable ; but, if scorched or half-raw and 
full of lumps, it is most repulsive. Gruels are soothing remedies for bad 
colds. 

INDIAN-MEAL GRUEL.— Take corn-meal and sift it into a quart of 
slightly-salted boiling water, stirring until it is the consistency ot cream. 



488 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

Let simmer one-half-hour or longer. Put in a bit of butter, if allowable ; 
add sugar and nutmeg, if desired. A couple dozen raisins boiled in the 
gruel will improve the flavor. They need not be eaten. Another way is 
to serve the gruel in the proportions of one-half cup of the gruel and 
one-half cup of rich milk, heated together. 

CAUDLE. — Make a water gruel as above, or a rice caudle. Strain it 
and add a wineglassful of wine or brandy. Sweeten with loaf-sugar, and 
grate in a little nutmeg. 

RICE CAUDLE — Soak 2 tablespoonfuls of rice in cold water for an 
hour. Drain and simmer in a pint of sweet milk (the milk must be cold 
to start with) until it is a pulp that can be rubbed through a sieve. Then 
put pulp and milk in a saucepan, with a bruised clove, a bit of stick cinna- 
mon and loaf-sugar to taste. Simmer ten minutes longer. If too thin, 
add a little more milk. Serve with very thin slices of dry toast. 

RICE GRUEL. — Add i tablespoon ful of rice to 3 cups of boiling water. 
When it has cooked for three-quarters of an honr, a cup of milk is added, 
with a teaspoonful of salt, and the mixture is boiled for a few minutes 
longer. Strain the gruel through a puree sieve, pressing through all the 
rice that will go. Let the gruel boil up for 5 minutes after it is strained. 
Add sugar and nutmeg to the taste. Serve it with little slices of brown 
toast. Though this is a very palatable gruel, it is not so full of nourish- 
ment as a barley gruel ; but it is valuable to persons suffering from intes- 
tinal disease, who cannot take heavier food. 

boiled FLOUR GRUEL. — Tie a teacupful of flour closely in a 
cotton cloth. Boil 6 hours. When cool untie, and let it dry in a moder- 
ate oven. If the outer part remains soft remove carefully. When 
wanted for use, grate 2 tablespoonfuls of it, and rub smooth with a little 
cold milk. Stir it into 1 pint of boiling milk, cook 5 minutes, season 
with salt and sugar to taste. Very good for children and infants in 
summer diseases ; also for older invalids. 

OATMEAL GRUEL (MILK). — Pour i pint of boiling water on 2 table- 
spoonfuls of oatmeal, add one-half pint milk and 1 teaspoonful salt, 
simmer in double boiler for one-half hour, add some raisins and grated 
nutmeg if permissible, strain, sweeten with loaf sugar if liked. 

OATMEAL GRUEL (WATER). — One cupful oatmeal, 1 quart water ; 
boil gently until it thickens, rub through a sieve with a spoon, and serve 
hot ; sweeten if liked ; add a pinch of salt. If too thick, thin with milk, 
water or broth. 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 489 

MILK GRUEL. — One tablespoonful of Indian meal, i tablespoonful 
of wheat flour. Rub them smooth in a little cold milk or water. Pour 
into I quart of boiling milk, boil 10 minutes, season with butter and salt. 
Good for a cold. 

CHICKEN OATMBAL GRUEL (A CONVALESCENT'S FOOD). — B i 1 a 

chicken till tender, remove the chicken, lay it one side for the well folks 
to eat. Strain the stock. There should be about a pint. Add one- 
quarter cup of fine oatmeal and cook i hour. Strain again, add i pint 
of milk, add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with inch cubes of bread, 
browned in the oven. 

ARROWROOT GRUEL. — Make same as Rice Gruel, taking i ounce 
to i pint of milk, together with i teaspoonful sugar and a pinch of salt. 

CRACKER GRUEL. — Roll until fine 6 soda crackers. Put i pint of 
cold water into a saucepan ; when boiling add the rolled cracker. Do not 
stir, but boil i minute. Add sugar and nutmeg to taste, then 2 tablespoon- 
fuls of thick cream. Serve warm. 

MILK porridge. — Mix 2 tablespoonfuls of flour with a half cupful 
of cold milk, place a cupful and a half of milk over the fire in a sauce- 
pan ; stir in the flour and the milk, a saltspoonful of salt, and, if desired, 
sugar and nutmeg to suit the palate of the patient ; stir the porridge 
constantly until it begins to boil, then let it boil for i minute, and serve 
it. Some palates will not endure the sweetening and flavoring, but a 
simple bit of butter, and some like a dozen of raisins boiled in the milk ; 
not to eat, but for the flavor. Cornstarch is nice to use in place of flour. 
Another variation is to make as above, remove from the fire, and stir in 
the stiffly-beaten white of an egg. 

baked milk. — Put milk in an earthen jar, cover the opening with 
thick paper, and bake in a moderate oven until the milk is as thick as 
cream. This is often palatable to invalids who do not care for raw 
milk. 

RAISIN BROTH. — Boil i pound of raisins slowly in plenty of water 
for an hour. Make a thickening of cornstarch, moistened with cold 
water and a small piece of butter. Grate in a quarter of a nutmeg, and 
season with a tablespoonful of brandy or two of wine. Sweeten to the 
taste. Serve with a toasted cracker. This broth is both palatable and 
nourishing. 

BREAD PANADA. — Six Boston crackers, scatter a little granulated 
sugar and a grain of salt over each cracker. Put them in a bowl and 



490 . FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

just cover with boiling water. Grate a little nutmeg over them, and add 
2 tablespoonfuls of wine. Cover the dish and let it stand in a warm 
place until the crackers are soaked, but not broken. Serve in the bowl. 
Cut, or crumbed, stale bread may be used instead of crackers, or the 
bread may be toasted. 

CRACKER SOUP. — Put a bit of butter, the size of a hickory-nut, in 
a bowl, sprinkle in pepper and salt enough to make it palatable ; break 
in crackers as for oyster soup, and turn on boiling water until the dish 
is filled. This is a substitute for oyster soup, and is a very nice dish. 
Use as much pepper as possible, if the disease is a sore throat. A person 
in perfect health will relish this dish. 

SOLID FOODS. 

CALVES' -FOOT JELLY. — Wash and clean the feet of a large calf. 
Put them to boil in 8 quarts of water. When the water is half boiled 
away, strain through a sieve and set it to cool. When perfectly cold, 
remove every particle of fat from the top; take up the jelly, removing 
any sediment that may be at the bottom. Set it over the fire again, 
letting it dissolye slowly without stirring ; before it is hot add the whites 
of 6 eggs beaten stiff, the juice of 6 lemons, and 8 tablespoonfuls of 
powdered sugar. Let it boil, skimming thoroughly until it is perfectly 
clear. Try a teaspoonful on a plate to .cool. If not sufficiently firm, 
boil longer or add half an ounce of gelatine or isinglass dissolved in 
enough water to cover it. Put some of the yellow skins of the lemon in 
a jelly-bag and strain through. This gives the jelly a fine amber color. 

A stick of cinnamon may be put in at the same time with the lemon 
juice; remove before straining. Fasten the jelly-bag (it should be 
flannel ; wring it out of hot water before using, to enable the liquid to 
run more freely) near the fire and do not stir nor press. Calves'-foot 
jelly can be made by simply sweetening, leaving out the lemon juice and 
cinnamon. When for invalids, the physician frequently orders a wine- 
glass of pale brandy or a pint of Madeira, white sugar in equal weight 
with the juice; boil it until it will jelly. W T hen cold, pour in glasses 
and seal. 

MUTTON JELLY. — Six shanks of mutton, 3 pints of water, pepper 
and salt to taste, one-half pound lean beef, a crust of bread toasted 
brown. Wash the shanks well, after soaking in water several hours, 
and place all ingredients in a saucepan with the water and simmer gently 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 491 

for five Hours. Season with. salt. Strain, and when cold skim off the 
fat. Warm as much as is wanted at a time ; or, serve cold. 

MEAT JELLY. — Clear i quart of strong beef broth with white of 
egg. See " Clarifying Soups," Season with salt and pepper to taste, 
adding lemon-juice, cinnamon or other spices, if desired ; set away to 
harden in little cups. When ready to use, turn out on a pretty saucer, 
and serve with a saltine or a bit of toast. 

CHICKEN JELLY. — Chicken jelly may be used in a variety of ways. 
To make the jelly, take a fowl weighing about 3 pounds. Clean and 
remove the skin and fat. Cut it into pieces, and put them into a sauce- 
pan, with 2 generous quarts of water, a bay leaf, and some pieces of 
celery. Cover and heat slowly up to the boiling-point. Let it simmer 
for 4 hours, then season with salt and strain into glasses, and set away 
to cool. When cold, remove the fat. This jelly may be used cold or 
heated, and served like soup. Heat a glass of the jelly and add a gill of 
sherry or Madeira wine, 1 teaspoonful of dissolved gelatine, some sugar 
and the juice of half a lemon. Pour the liquid jelly into small cups, 
and set away to harden. This makes a very nourishing wine jelly. 
Pieces of the white meat of the fowl may be cut fine and put into a jelly 
glass, and the liquid jelly poured over them. When cold it is appetizing 
sliced and put between thin pieces of bread, buttered, and with the crust 
taken off, or with slices of jellied chicken with toasted crackers. 

CHICKEN JELLY. — II. Boil 2 tablespoonfuls of finely-chopped cold 
chicken in sufficient water to make a cupful of the whole ; thicken 
lightly with cornstarch in melted butter, pour over a slice of nicely toasted 
bread and serve hot. 

SCRAPED RAW BEEF. — Take a tender piece of beef; cut across the 
grain ; scrape with a spoon until all the pulp is removed ; make a fresh 
surface by cutting off the scraped part with a thin, sharp knife ; proceed 
in this way until all the meat is reduced to a pulp. If necessary, it may 
be eaten raw, spread very thin on slices of toast, or the pulp may be put 
in a hot frying-pan with a little butter, and allowed to barely cook 
through, stirring and turning constantly. A weak stomach will often 
retain scraped beef when it refuses all other solid foods. 

RAW BEEF SANDWICHES. — Between two thin slices of toast pla 
a small piece of juicy, fresh, tender raw beef, scraped fine and seasoned 
highly with salt and pepper. 

HOT BEEF TOAST. — A slice of bread toasted to a delicate brown 



492 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

and moistened with the juice from a Hot, rare beefsteak is a little varia- 
tion from the regulation toast that is appreciated by the invalid. 

BROILED SQUABS, QUAIL, OR CHICKEN. — Squabs or quails should 
be split down the back, wiped dry and broiled on both sides. Season 
lightly with salt, pepper and butter. The breast only of a spring chicken 
should be broiled. Season as above. 

BROILED sweetbreads. — Sweetbreads must be parboiled, then 
blanched in cold water and lemon juice. Broil until well browned. Salt 
and pepper. 

creamed sweetbreads. No matter how you serve sweetbreads 
they must first be parboiled in clear water for 20 minutes. Then throw 
them into cold water and pick them into small pieces, rejecting the 
membrane. Put a tablespoonful of butter and 1 of flour in a saucepan 
and add half a pint of milk, and when boiling add the sweetbreads and 
half a teaspoon ful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper, and they are 
ready to serve. Sweetbreads are the pancreas of an animal and valuable 
for convalescents because they are a form of partially predigested food, 
and require but 1 hour in the stomach to complete the digestive process. 

GRILLED OYSTERS. Put about 6 unopened oysters on a gridiron ; 
as soon as they are partly open put into each a bit of fresh butter 
sprinkled with pepper ; when they are quite open, which will take about 
7 minutes, serve with them bread and butter and some slices of lemon. 

INVALID'S MUTTON CHOP. Cut the chop rather thin and cook it 
thoroughly over a clear coal fire. Remove the skin from it. 

chopped beefsteak FOR the invalid. — A nutritious, stimu- 
lating food, more digestible than unchopped steak, and valuable in all 
sickness caused by mal-nutrition. Trim the fat from a pound of round 
or sirloin steak, cut the meat in inch pieces, put it into a meat chopper 
or mincing machine and chop it for 5 minutes ; then take from the top 
of the meat the fine pulp which rises during the operation of the chop- 
ping ; continue to chop and remove the pulp until only the fibre of the 
meat remains. Press the pulp into a round, flat cake, and broil it over 
a very hot fire for about 5 minutes on each side ; season lightly with salt 
and cayenne pepper, and serve hot. 

BACON FOR INVALIDS. — Slice the bacon very thin ; almost thin 
enough to look through; broil on a gentle fire, turning very often; 
broil until the corners commence to curl ; then serve on dipped toast. 

CREAMED codfish. — Shred some codfish fine, put in cold water, 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 493 

let come slowly to a boil to freshen it. Boil a moment, turn off the 
water and add hot cream, seasoned lightly with pepper if allowable, or 
rich milk in which a small lump of butter has been dissolved. Split 
and toast a Boston cracker, or a half slice of baker's bread from which 
the crust has been removed, and turn the codfish over this. 

EGG ON TOAST. — A delicate way of preparing eggs is to poach 2 
very lightly, put them on slices of crisp toast and pour over them a coffee 
cupful of hot cream. Or, dip a crisp slice of toast, either of white or 
Graham bread, into boiling salted water. Take out and butter lightly 
and put the poached eggs upon them. Less rich than with milk. 

WHIPPED EGG ON TOAST. — Place 2 tablespoonfuls of boiling water 
in a small saucepan on the stove. Break the egg in and stir briskly until 
the egg is set, but not at all hard. Serve on toast. This is no richer 
than the dropped eggo 

EGG IN MILK. — Toast 2 thin slices of baker's bread, then butter • 
break 1 egg into a cup of milk and let the milk come to a scald, or till the 
white of the egg turns a milk white ; add a pinch of salt ; take the egg up 
carefully, so as not to break the yolk, and lay it on the toast, then pour 
the rest over it ; it is a good dish for convalescents. 

HOW TO EAT A RAW EGG. — Put the yolk of an egg into a dish 
with a teaspoonful of white sugar and a teaspoonful of orange or lemon 
juice and beat lightly together with a fork. Put the whites on a plate 
and add a pinch of salt. Then with a broad-bladed knife beat it to a stiff 
broth. Now as lightly as possible mix all together in the dish. Trans- 
fer it to a clean tumbler, which it will nearly fill if properly made. Any 
fruit juice may be used in place of orauge or lemon, or even brand}' if the 
doctor has ordered it. 

CREAM TOAST FOR INVALIDS. — Heat some very thin cream to 
nearly the boiling point and salt well. Toast a slice of white or Graham 
bread a nice brown. Pour the cream over it and serve at once. Milk may 
be used instead of cream. No butter at first. 

BAKED POTATO. — Potatoes must be served baked, and as soon as 
they are done cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the meal}' centre into a 
hot bowl. Mash and 'add 2 tablespoonfuls of cream and a little salt. Boat 
the white of 1 egg stiff, and mix it with the potato. The egg' may be 
omitted. 

ONION GRUEL. — This is excellent for a cold. Slice down a few 
onions and boil them in a pint of new milk, stir them in a sprinkle of oat- 



494 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

meal and a very little salt ; boil till the onions are quite tender, then sup 

rapidly and go to bed. Onions slowly stewed in weak broth and eaten 

with a little pepper will be found to be an admirable article of diet for 

patients of studious and sedentary habits. 

GLUTEN wafers. — To i gill of cream add seven-eights cup of 

gluten and i saltspoon of salt. Roll out about as thick as a silver dollar 

and bake. 

SWEET DISHES. 

RICE and EGG. — Wash thoroughly half a cup of rice and put it into 
a double boiler with just enough water to cover it. When the rice is nearly 
done, if any water remains pour it off and add i cup of milk and a little 
salt. Let the rice cook slowly until done. Beat an egg thoroughly, a.id 
the last thing before taking the rice from the fire stir the egg into it as 
lightly as possible, and serve hot with sugar and cream. 

SAGO jelly. — Wash one large tablespoonful of sago, soak one hour, 
boil it in half cupful of water ; with pinch of salt, and a stick of cinnamon, 
until the grains grow clear ; rind of lemon may be substituted for the 
cinnamon. Then add i pint of boiling milk, or milk and water, boil all 
together, sweeten and set away to cool. 

ORANGE JELLY. — Take half pint of orange juice, beat the white of 
an egg to a stiff froth and add the juice, with i teacupful of sugar, to a 
scant pint of hot water. Have previously soaked half package of gela- 
tine in i teacupful of cold water, add this to the other ingredients. Set 
the dish containing the mixture over the fire in a pan of boiling water, 
and stir until it is thoroughly heated. Strain and fill in moulds, or keep 
the halves of the orange peel intact and fill the jelly in these. Set in a 
cool place to harden. 

tapioca jelly. — Soak the tapioca 5 hours, or over night. Sim- 
mer in a stew-pan until it becomes quite clear, then add the juice of a 
lemon or a glass of wine, with sugar to taste. Set in a cool place until 
ready to serve. 

dyspeptic custard. — This can be digested by weakened and 
dyspeptic stomachs : To half a pint of fresh milk heated lukewarm add 

1 teaspoon of essence of pepsin ; stir just enough to mix ; let it stand till 
cold, serve plain or with cream and sugar and nutmeg ; wines or cordials 
can be added as you like. 

RICE CUSTARD. — Boil in a double boiler 2 tablespoon fuls of rice in 

2 cups of milk for nearly 3 hours, when the rice should be perfectly soft. 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 49:5 

Pass this through a colander into a saucepan, and put on the back of the 
stove to keep hot while 2 eggs are thoroughly beaten into 2 heaping 
teaspoonfuls of sugar and a pinch of salt. When this is light and the 
rice boils up, stir the eggs in slowly with a spoon for a minute or two till 
the whole is like a thick, soft custard. 

ICE CREAM FOR AN INVALID. — Sometimes the patient has a fancy 
for something cold, and in the later stages of convalescence an ice is not 
at all harmful. Slightly scald a pint of sweet cream, mix with it three 
quarters of a cup of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla flavoring 
and one of good brandy. Beat stiff the whites of two eggs, stir in lightly 
and freeze. Freeze in a little tin pail with a tightly-fitting cover. Set in 
a wooden pail and pack around with alternate layers of ice and salt, lay 
wet cloths over the top and set in a cool place. In about three-quarters 
of an hour open the can, cut away the frozen portion from the sides. In 
half an hour more it should be solid. 

STERILIZED MILK FOR CHILDREN. — Put the milk in clean bottles 
the size to have the contents used once. Then put the bottles into a large 
kettle or other metal receptacle. Pour cold water into the kettle until 
the water reaches the level of the milk in the bottles. Now close the 
mouth of each bottle with a plug of clean white cotton fibre. Heat the 
kettle and contents to 155 degrees Fahrenheit. Then remove from the 
fire and cover the whole affair snugly with a woolen cloth to keep from 
cooling at once. Leave half an hour, then take out the bottles and keep 
them in running water or in any cool place, leaving them still stoppered 
with the plug of cotton. 

The flexible wooden stoppers used with some kinds of patent glass 
jars would answer in place of cotton, the object being to exclude air, dust 
and germs. Be careful not to heat above 155 degrees, or the milk will 
not taste quite right. In practice it will be found a good idea to make 
easier the circulation of the hot water by placing a wire frame an inch or 
two in height in the kettle beneath the bottles. Milk carefully treated 
by the above process may be warranted free from disease germs, and it 
will keep sweet about 24 hours. 

MENU FOR BABY. — The average healthy child of 14 months and 
upward is better for a carefully chosen variety in its diet. The following 
bills of fare will answer for any healthy child of from 14 months up to 
2% years of age : 

1. Milk to drink. Half a saucer of oatmeal with a little butter and 



496 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

salt. Half a saucer of oatmeal with cream and sugar. A few teaspoon- 
fuls of strained prune juice. 2. Thoroughly mashed potato, with a little 
butter, cream and salt. A thick strip of rare beefstead to suck (should be 
allowed only the juice). A few teaspoonfuls of finely scraped apple. 
Milk to drink. 3. Half a soft boiled egg. Milk toast. Baby tea — made 
of milk and warm water in equal proportions, with sugar and a drop of 
vanilla. 4. Bread and milk. A few teaspoonfuls fine grained apple 
sauce. Half slice of bread with beefsteak gravy. 5. Half saucer of rice 
with butter and salt. Half saucer rice with cream and sugar. Two or 3 
teaspoonfuls of orange juice. Milk to drink. 6. Half teacup of beef tea. 
Crackers and milk. Third of a slice of bread with pure maple syrup. 7. 
A little strained fig syrup (if constipated) made by boiling figs in water 
with sugar. Mush and milk. Small slice bread and butter without 
crust. 8. A teaspoonful of the breast of chicken or turkey minced very 
fine. Toast and milk. Small lump of sugar for dessert. 9. Oatmeal, 
crackers and milk. Baked potato, cream and salt. Whipped cream, 
sweetened and flavored. 10. Half slice buttered toast, without crust. 
Bread and milk. Taste of custard, wine, jelly or melted vanilla or 
chocolate ice cream. 

THE MEDICINE CI-OSET. — Every well regulated household has a 
medicine closet. This does not mean that a whole cupboard out of the 
scant supply of the average flat must be given over to medicine bottles 
and plasters. 

There are on sale at all furnishing stores and at most of the dry- 
goods shops medicine cabinets, varying in size and in make, but all of 
them falling within the average housekeeper's means. One of these 
should be fastened out of reach of the children in mother's room. 

The properly equipped medicine cabinet is at least half closed and 
locked. In this compartment the poisons which are household remedies 
should be kept. Ammonia and alcohol belong to this class as well as 
laudanum and arnica. Salves, lotions and the like may be kept on the 
unguarded shelf compartment. 

Antidotes for poisons, liniments for stings, cuts and bruises, plasters 
and plenty of material for bandages should be kept in the closet. Witch- 
hazel, for sores and burns, should not be forgotten, nor the helpful, sim- 
ple soda, nor potash for gargling. It is an excellent idea to have tacked 
to the door of the cabinet a typewritten list of things to do and remedies 
to give in emergencies. In it also should be found the temporary relief 



FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 497 

for a severe Headache, the mustard for footbath, or the invaluable plaster, 
for which, however, might be substituted the more convenient mustard 
leaves ; vaseline or pure sweet oil, which would be found to be invaluable 
for burns ; oil of cloves, seidlitz powders and citrate of magnesia. 

Kate Field has a word of advice for the coming woman. " Dear grad- 
uates " (she says, in addressing a class of college girls) : a Cooking is the 
alphabet of your happiness. I do not hesitate to affirm that this Repub- 
lic, great as her necessities are in many directions, needs cooks more than 
all else. The salvation of the national stomach depends upon them. We 
are a nation of dyspeptics ; and Americans are dyspeptics because they 
eat the wrong foods, badly cooked, which they drown in ice-water. They 
are dyspeptics because our women don't know the rudiments of their 
business, and resign their kitchens into the hands of incompetent serv- 
ants, of whom they are afraid, and whose impudence they frequently 
endure through sheer helplessness. Be cooks first, and anything you 
please afterwards. On you posterity waits." 

In the A, B, C of a girl's life, cooking really comes first. It is the 
beginning of the alphabet of happiness. Remember the table is the hub 
upon which the health of the family revolves. Doctors are turned from 
our medical school by the hundreds to thrive off badly-fed people. Ruskin 
tells us that a nation's wealth depends entirely upon the number of heal- 
thy individuals the nation can show. If this be true, then we are poor 
indeed in. America. 

A person who is insufficiently nourished is in condition to accept and 
keep almost any disease that is flying in the atmosphere. We are told 
that if our stomach is in a healthy condition, we need not fear cholera or 
yellow fever — two dread diseases. We are also told that the well-fed, 
whose bodies are in a perfect condition, are safe in typhus regions ; and 
we do know that the happiness of the individual is largely due to the 
condition of his stomach. 

Edwin Russell made a very truthful remark when he said that "the 
physique has much more to do with the success of the man than his 
actual mental power ; and, where the two are combined, success is certain ; 
It requires but little observation to note that the very brainy woman, with 
a poor and insufficiently-nourished body, lasts but a little while. In sharp 
contrast to her short career is the well-fed and energetic woman whose 
body is equal, in development, and who goes on to comfortable old age. 

Boys and girls, at the age of entering college, break down, not having 
32 



498 FOOD FOR INVALIDS. 

the physique to go on with their studies, although their brain powers are 
perfectly developed. The mother, in building this foundation, has forgot- 
ten to put in the lasting stones. Not because she wishes to do it, but 
because cooking has fallen to the share of the ignorant, and she has been 
willing to trust her family in their hands ; and, as a result, when the boys 
or girls enter the work of life, they enter it tired and worn, and do not 
find themselves at forty with a Gladstone physique at eighty. Not rich 
or costly dishes, but simple food so well prepared that the satisfied body 
shall not think of itself from one meal to another. It is the discomfort 
and hankering of an ill-fed stomach that drives some men to drink and 
others to the insane asylums. 

Mrs. Rorer says that " in the twentieth century our cooks will be 
college graduates, women of position. All bills of fare will be made out 
with an object. The right and proper proportion of all materials will be 
converted into each meal, so that the muscles, bones and nerves will be 
equally fed. And if, for any reason, a child be born whose equilibrium 
is not perfect, a line of diet will be immediately prescribed to square him 
up, as it were." 

The classes that fill our insane asylums do it not so much because 
they are overworked, but because their food has not been studied in 
accordance with their duties. It is suicidal for a man in an office to eat 
food that would be the proper sort for a farmer, and vice versa. To the 
really civilized mind, the hygiene of the stomach is the hygiene of the 
mind and soul, and the art of cooking one of the greatest of all arts. 
While the highest regions of social and intellectual achievement are open 
to women, they could not bring their power to bear more effectually than 
by seeing to it that the dinners of their husbands and brothers are well 
cooked. 

Health, appetite, digestion and good temper are essential to success 
in nearly all the undertakings of life, including success in making love. 
But how can there be good health and good temper under the constant 
and depressing infliction of badly-cooked, indigestible meals ? Napoleon 
is said to have lost the battle of Waterloo because of a fit of indigestion 
after a hastily-swallowed dinner. The pangs of the stomach prevented 
him from making his combinations on the field with his accustomed skill 
and rapidity. The people whose meals, however simple, are wholesome 
and well cooked, will fight almost to the death for their civil and political 
rights. 



POISONS AND ANTIDOTES. 

ACETATE OF LEAD. — Recumbent posture after emetics. Emetics 
and opium ; give tincture aconite. 

ACETATE OF UEAl> (or sugar of lead). — Give Epsom salts or dilute 
sulphuric acid, provoke vomiting, give bland liquids, give castor oil. 

ACIDS (Sulphuric, nitric, muriatic and oxalic). — Give an alkali, 
strong, [clean soapsuds, a piece of soap will do, provoke vomiting, give 
bland liquids, rest patient, relieve pain by opium ; if faint, stimulate, feed 
by enema. 

ACONITE. — Provoke vomiting, stimulate well, keep up the breathing, 
give digitalis and atropine. 

ALCOHOL. — Provoke vomiting, give hartshorn and water. 

ALKALIES (hartshorn, soda, potash and lye). — Give vinegar or other 
acid, provoke vomiting, give bland liquids, secure rest, relieve pain by 
opium, and stimulate if necessary. 

ARSENIC (Paris green, Fowler's solution, etc.) — Provoke vomiting, 
give dose castor oil, secure rest and stimulate if necessary. 

atropia. — Same as Belladonna. 

BELLADONNA. — Emetics — mustard-flour in water ; cold to head. 

BLAND LIQUIDS — Are milk, gruel, raw eggs, oil of some kind, barley 
water, mucilage, etc, 

CANTHAKIDES. — Emetics, emollient drinks, opiates by mouth and 
rectum, large draughts of water to flush kidneys. 

CARBOLIC ACID (Epsoni salts, oil and glycerine). — Produce vomit- 
ing and stimulate. 

CHLOROFORM. — Fresh air, artificial respiration (inclining head down- 
ward, pull tongue forward) , brandy and ammonia injected in veins of leg. 

CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE. — Albumen, white of egg (4 grs. sublimate 
require white of one egg), flour, milk. 'Equal "parts of lime-water and 
milk. Emetics, or evacuate stomach by pump. 

CROTON OIL. — Emetics, wash out stomach; followed by mucilagin- 
ous foods containing opium. 

DECAYED MEAT AND VEGETABLES. — Provoke vomiting, wash out 
the stomach, give a purgative, give an enema, give powdered charcoal and 
peroxide of hydrogen. 

DIGITALIS. — Recumbent posture after emetics. Kinetics and opium. 
Give tincture aconite. 

ILLUMINATING GAS. — Hypodermic injections oi glycerin, 

499 



500 POISONS AND ANTIDOTES. 

iodide. — Provoke vomiting, give starch and water, give bland fluids. 
MERCURY (corrosive sublimate, antimony or tartar emetic). — Provoke 
vomiting, give some infusion containing tannic acid, give raw eggs and 
milk, give dose of castor oil and stimulate if necessary. 

NITRATE OF SILVER (lunar caustic). — Give strong salt and water, 
provoke vomiting, repeat many times. 

NTJX VOMICA. — Thirty grains of chloral and sixty grains of bromide 
of potash. 

OPIUM (laudanum, morphine, paregoric, etc.) — Provoke vomiting 
repeatedly, give strong coffee or tea in large quantities, keep up the 
breathing, walk patient around, do not allow him to go to sleep. 
OXALIC ACID. — Lime ; not potash or soda. 

PHOSPHORUS. — Provoke vomiting by repeated five-grain doses of 
sulphate of copper, give dose of magnesia, but no oil. 

POISONOUS GASES. — Fresh air, oxygen, artificial respiration, nitro- 
glycerine, stimulation. 

strychnine. — Same as Nux Vomica. 

TOADSTOOL (hemlock, tobacco, etc.). — Provoke vomiting and give a 
purge, stimulate well and keep up the breathing, preferably with battery. 
ZINC salts. — Carbonate of soda, emetics, warm demulcent drinks. 
Of course it would be decidedly dangerous for any one except a phy- 
sician to meddle with the drugs mentioned as antidotes. When poison 
has been taken, a doctor should be sent for in hot-haste. A stomach 
pump may be required, even in what seems a simple case to treat, and 
patients frequently require an antidote or stimulant administered hypo- 
dermatically. A physician is certainly the first necessity, but while 
awaiting his arrival it is highly necessary not one instant of time should 
be lost, lest the patient soon sink beyond assistance. Something may be 
done in every case if the proper method be understood. 

To provoke vomiting, mix a tablespoonful of ground mustard in a 
pint of lukewarm water (give warm water alone while mixing the mustard 
and water), or a teaspoonful of powdered ipecac, or a tablespoonful of the 
syrup, or a quicker and simpler way, thrust the finger down the throat. 

For the bite of a mad dog, the actual cautery should instantly be 
applied to the wound, and large doses of zinc, or muriate of iron, given 
for several days. 

Paste up a printed list of poisons and antidotes on the inside of some 
closet door. 





THE BEST COSMETICS. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

F it be true "that the face is the index of the mind/' the 
recipe for a beautiful face must be something that reaches 
the soul. What can be done for a human face, that has a 
sluggish, sullen, arrogant, angry mind looking out of every 
feature? An habitually ill-natured, discontented mind 
ploughs the face with inevitable marks of its own vice. 
However well shaped, or however bright its complexion, no 
such face can ever become really beautiful. If a woman's 
soul is without cultivation, without taste, without refine- 
ment, without the sweetness of a happy mind, not all the 
mysteries of art can ever make her beautiful. 
And, xm the other hand, it is impossible to dim the brightness of an 
elegant and polished intellect. The radiance of a charming mind strikes 
through all deformity of features, and still asserts its sway over the world 
of the affections. Yet we have found no art which can atone for an 
unpolished mind, and an unlovely heart. 

We cannot resist the temptation of giving a beautiful quotation from 
an old Greek poet, which proves that common sense on this subject oi 
beauty is not by any means of recent date in the world. 

" Why tinge the cheek of youth ? the snowy neck, 
Why load with jewels ? why anoint the hair ? 
Oh, lady, scorn these arts ; but richly deck 
Thy soul with virtues ; thus for love prepare. 
IyO, with what vernial tints the apple blooms ? 
Say, doth the rose the painter's hand require ? 
Away, then, with cosmetics and perfumes ! 
The charms of nature most excite desire." 

501 



502 THE BEST COSMETICS. 

Though it is true that a beautiful mind is the first thing requisite 
for a beautiful face, yet how much more charming will the whole become 
through the aid of a fine complexion? It is not easy to overrate the 
importance of complexion. The features of a Juno with a dull skin 
would never fascinate. The forehead, the nose, the lips, may all be 
faultless in size and shape ; but still, they can hardly look beautiful with- 
out the aid of a bright complexion. Even the finest eyes lose more than 
half their power, if they are surrounded by an inexpressive complexion. 
It is in the coloring or complexion that the artist shows his great skill 
in giving expression to the face. Overlooking entirely the matter of 
vanity, it is a woman's duty to use all the means in her power to beautify 
and preserve her complexion. It is fitting that the " index of the soul " 
should be kept as clean and bright and beautiful as possible. 

A stomach frequently crowded with greasy food, or with artificial 
stimulants of any kind, will in a short time spoil the brightest com- 
plexion. All excesses tend to do the same thing. Frequent ablution 
with tepid water, followed by gentle and very frequent rubbing with a dry 
napkin, is one of best cosmetics ever employed. 

SMOOTHING OUT WRINKLES. 

Many fashionable ladies in Paris used to bind their faces, every 
night on going to bed, with thin slices of raw beef, which is said to keep 
the skin from wrinkles, while it gives a youthful freshness and brilliancy 
to the complexion. We have no doubt of its efficacy. 

The celebrated Madame Vestris used to sleep every night with her 
face plastered up with a kind of paste to ward off the threatening wrinkles, 
and keep her charming complexion from fading. We will give the recipe 
for making the Vestris' Paste for the benefit of any of our readers whose 
looking-glass warns them that the dimness and wrinkles of age are 
extinguishing the roses of youth : 

The whites of four eggs boiled in rose-water, half an ounce of alum, 
half an ounce of oil of sweet almonds ; beat the whole together till it 
assumes the consistence of a paste. 

The above spread upon a silk or muslin mask, and w 7 orn at night, 
will not only keep back the wrinkles and preserve the complexion fair, 
but it is a great remedy where the skin becomes too loosely attached to 
the muscles, as it gives firmness to the parts. 

There are many disorders of the skin which are induced by culpable 



THE BEST COSMETICS. 503 

ignorance, and which owe their origin entirely to circnmstances connected 
with fashion or habit. The frequent and sudden changes in this country 
from heat to cold, by abruptly exciting or repressing the secretions of 
the skin, roughen its texture, injures its hue, and often deform it with 
unseemly eruptions. And many of the fashions of dressing the head 
are still more inimical to the complexion than the climate. The habit 
the ladies have of going into the open air without a bonnet, and often 
without a veil, is a ruinous one for the skin. 

Indeed, that fashion of ladies' bonnets, which only cover a few inches 
of the back of the head, is a great tax upon the beauty of the com- 
plexion. In this climate, especially, the head and face need protection 
from the atmosphere. Not only a woman's beauty, but her health 
requires that she should never step into the open air, particularly in 
autumnal evenings, without a sufficient covering to her head. And, if 
she regards the beauty of her complexion, she must never go out into 
the hot sun without her veil. 

FACE HUMORS REPULSIVE. 

The custom common among ladies, of drying the perspiration from 
their faces by powdering, or of cooling them when they are hot, from 
exposure to the sun or dancing, by washing with cold water, is most 
destructive to the complexion, and not unfrequently spreads a humor 
over the face which renders it hideous forever. 

A little common sense ought to teach a woman that when she is 
overheated she ought to allow herself to cool gradually ; and, by all 
means, avoid going into the air, or allowing a draught through an open 
door, or window, to blow upon her while she is thus heated. If she will 
not attend to these rules, she will be fortunate, sa}dng nothing about her 
beauty, if her life does not pay the penalty of her thoughtlessness. 

Ladies ought also to know that excessive heat is as bad as excessive 
cold for the complexion, and often causes distempers of the skin, which 
are difficult of cure. Look at the rough and dingy face of the desert- 
wandering gipsy, and you behold the effects of exposure to alternate heats 
and colds. 

To remedy the rigidity of the muscles of the face, and to cure any 
roughness which may be induced by daily exposure, the following wash 
may be applied with almost certain relief: Mix two parts of white brandy 
with one part of rose-water, and wash the face with it night and morning. 



504 THE BEST COSMETICS. 

The brandy keeps up a gentle action of the skin, which is so essen- 
tial to its healthy appearance, also thoroughly cleanses the surface, while 
the rose-water counteracts the dying nature of the brandy, and leaves the 
skin in a natural, soft, and flexible state. 

If Satan has ever had any direct agency in inducing woman to spoil 
or deform her own beauty, it must have been in tempting her to use 
paints and enamelling. Nothing so effectually writes memento mori 7 on 
the cheek of beauty as this ridiculous and culpable practice. Ladies 
ought to know that it is a sure spoiler of the skin, and good taste ought 
to teach them that it is a frightful distorter and deformer of the natural 
beauty of the " human face divine. " The greatest charm of beauty is 
in the expression of a lovely face ; in those divine flashes of joy, and 
good-nature, and love, which beam in the human countenance. 

DAUBS OP PAINT AND ENAMEL. 

But what expression can beam in " a face bedaubed with white paint 
and enamelled ? No flush of pleasure, no thrill of hope, no light of love 
can shine through the incrusted mould." Her face is as expressionless 
as that of a painted mummy. And let no woman imagine that the men 
do not readily detect this poisonous mask upon the skin. Many a time 
have I seen a gentleman shrink from saluting a brilliant lady, as though 
it was a death's head he were compelled to kiss. The secret was, that 
her face and lips were bedaubed with paints. All white paints are not 
only destructive to the skin, but they are ruinous to the health. 

Excessive use of powder is also a vulgar trick. None but the very 
finest powder should ever be used, and the lady should be especially 
careful that sufficient is not left upon the face to be noticable to the eye 
of a gentleman. 

I am aware that a beautiful bosom is a subject which must be 
handled with great delicacy ; but my book would be incomplete without 
some notice of this " greatest claim of lovely woman." And, besides, it 
is undoubtedly true, that a proper discussion of this subject will seem 
peculiar only to the most vulgar minded of both sexes. If it be true, as 
the old poet sung, that 

' ' Heaven rests on those two heaving hills of snow, ' ' 

why should not a woman be suitably instructed in the right management 
of such extraordinary charms ? 



THE BEST COSMETICS. 505 

The first thing to be impressed upon the mind of a lady is, that 
very low-necked dresses are in exceeding bad taste, and are quite sure 
to leave upon the mind of a gentleman an equivocal idea, to say the 
least. A word to the wise on this subject is sufficient. If a young lady 
has no father, or brother, or husband to direct her taste in this matter, 
she will do well to sit down and commit the above statement to memory. 
It is a charm which a woman, who understands herself, will not leave to 
the public eye of man, but to his imagination. She knows that modesty 
is the divine spell that binds the heart of man to her forever. 

But my observation has taught me that few women are well informed 
as to the physical management of this part of their bodies. The bosom, 
which nature has formed with exquisite symmetry in itself, and admir- 
able adaptation to the parts of the figure to which it is united, is often 
transformed into a shape, and transplanted to a place, which deprives it 
of its original beauty and harmony with the rest of the person. 

This deforming metamorphosis is effected by means of stiff stays or 
corsets, which force the part out of its natural position, and destroy the 
natural tension and firmness in which so much of its beauty consists. 
A young lady should be instructed that she is not to allow even her own 
hand to press it too roughly. 

INJURIES FROM HARD SUBSTANCES. 

But, above all things, to avoid, especially when young, the constant 
pressure of such hard substance as whalebone and steel ; for, besides the 
destruction to beauty, they are liable to produce all the terrible conse- 
quences of abscesses and cancers. Even the padding which ladies use, 
to give a full appearance, where there is a deficient bosom, is sure, in a 
little time, to entirely destroy all the natural beauty of the parts. 

As soon as it becomes apparent that the bosom lacks the rounded 
fullness due to the rest of her form, instead of trying to repair the defi- 
ciency with artificial padding, it should be clothed as loosely as possible, 
so as to avoid the least artificial pressure. Not only its growth is stopped, 
but its complexion is spoiled by these tricks. Let the growth of this 
beautiful part be left as unconfined as the young cedar, or as the lily of 
the field. And for that reason the bodice should be flexible to the motion 
of the body and the undulations of the shape. The artificial india-rubber 
bosoms are not only ridiculous contrivances, but they are absolutely 
ruinous to the beauty of the part. 



506 THE BEST COSMETICS. 

The following preparation, very softly rubbed upon the bosom for 
five or ten minutes, two or three times a day has been used with success 
to promote its growth : tincture of myrrh, }4 oz. ; pimpernel water, 4 oz. • 
elder-flower water, 4 oz. ; musk, 1 gr. ; rectified spirits of wine, 6 oz. 

I have known ladies to take a preparation of iodyne internally to 

remedy a too large development of the bosom. But this must be a 

dangerous experiment for the general health. The following external 

application has been recommended for this purpose : strong essence of 

mint, 1 oz. ; iodine of zinc, 2 gr. ; aromatic vinegar, 2 gr. ; essence of 

cedrat, 19 drops. 

A BEAUTIFUL BOSOM. 

If, from sickness, or any other cause, the bosom has lost its beauty 
by becoming soft, the following wash, applied as gently as possible 
morning and night, will have a most beneficial effect : alum water, }4 
oz. ; strong camomile water, 1 oz. ; white brandy, 2 oz. If the whole 
body is not afflicted with a general decay and flabbiness, the use of this 
wash for a month or two will be quite sure to produce the happiest effects. 

Though at present little known outside the medical profession, 
massage is not a new thing, writes Helen Korte. The ancient Romans 
practiced it. Like other good things the ancients knew, it fell into 
disuse. It remained for a European to revive it, and make a system of 
its application. 

Massage means simply a rubbing, kneading and manipulating of 
the skin and the muscles lying immediately beneath it. It is prescribed 
for many ills. It strengthens the muscles and nerve-centres by promot- 
ing a steady flow of blood to the parts exercised, and when applied to the 
whole body, it equalizes the circulation in a way that brings health and 
strength. It is always restful, if properly administered, and is especially 
beneficial to nervous sufferers. The method of its application has been 
reduced to a science. 

The first step in the process is to carefully wash the face. The 
finest skin is full of grease and impurity, and hot water will remove it 
better than cold. So take steaming hot water, if you can get it. If it is 
at all " hard," put into it a pinch of powdered borax, enough to soften it 
thoroughly. Then with a soft, linen cloth, or fine sponge, and the 
purest soap you can buy, wash the face. Do not rub it hard. Trust the 
hot water and soap to cleanse it. Rinse the face with clear, tepid water, 
and dry it gently with a soft towel. 



THE BEST COSMETICS. 507 

Now moisten the fingers with some sort of fine, pure oil. Sweet 
almond oil, scented with a drop of two of attar of roses, is good and 
pleasant to use. Some recommend vaseline, and it answers the purpose 
very well in many cases. But if there is any tendency to an undue 
growth of hair on the face, it should be avoided, as vaseline promotes 
this growth. Women whose skins are naturally oily should be sparing 
in the use of the oil, perhaps may do without it altogether. 

Rub the surface of the face and neck, chest also, if desired, with the 
inside of the fingers held straight. Use both hands, and pull and stretch 
the skin in every direction. Rub the forehead from the centre out 
toward the temples eight or ten times, with firm, slow strokes. Rub up 
and down from hair to nose ; then from the root of the nose up and out- 
ward over the eyes. Stroke gently but firmly under the eyes, where the 
11 crow's feet " are wont to gather, passing the fingers close under the 
eyes and up toward the outer points of the eyebrows. 

DIRECTIONS FOR MASSAGE. 

Then stroke a little lower down, from the bridge of the nose out 
over the cheekbones. Most people sooner or later contract an ugly 
wrinkle running from the side of the nose down and out to the corner of 
the mouth. Attention should now be directed to this point, none the 
less if the line has not yet made its appearance. The old saying that 
"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure " is especially appli- 
cable to wrinkles. 

Put the fingers close to the nose on each side and rub outward into 
the cheek. It is better not. to rub back and forth across the cheeks. 
Instead, rub around the cheeks from the point of the chin outward and 
then in before the ear, with the inside of the fingers or hand. This 
helps to round the cheek. Pressure and rubbing outward will flatten it. 

The second " movement " consists in pinching up bunches of skin 
and muscle between the thumb and fingers. The fingers should go deep 
as possible, pressing firmly, but not so hard as to cause pain. The whole 
surface of face and neck should be thoroughly manipulated in this way, 
then, if desired, a few moments rest ma)' be taken. 

The next movement is similar to this, but lighter, smaller pinches of 
flesh are taken up ; little more than the skin receiving treatment this 
time. After this, another rest will not be out of order. 

Next, with the ends of the fingers lightly stroke every part of the 



508 THE BEST COSMETICS. 

face. This is supposed to be a gentle tonic for the skin, and also to give 
firmness to the muscles. Care should be used not to strike too hard. 

Next, straighten the hands and press with the inside of the fingers 
on every part of the face in turn. The pressure should be firm and hard, 
but should not be continued too long. These may be considered the 
finishing touches. If much oil has been used, and the face still seems 
greasy, it may be bathed again in tepid water in which a little borax has 
been dissolved. 

The massage should occupy at least fifteen or twenty minutes, and 
should be practiced daily for a week or ten days, when a vacation of a 
day or two may be taken. Then the work should begin anew. After a 
few weeks the benefit of this treatment will be plainly seen, and then a 
thorough rubbing two or three times a week will be sufficient to keep all 
in good condition. 

If those who undertake this treatment, can and will spend some 
hours of each day in outdoor exercise, they will find themselves rapidly 
improving in both looks and health. 

WHEN TO AVOID COSMETICS. 

If the black-heads and pimples with which so many are affiicted, do 
not readily disappear during the rubbing process, simple washes may be 
used to expedite their departure. 

FOR BLACK-HEADS. — Thirty-six grains of sub-carbonate of soda in 
eight ounces of distilled water, with six drachms essence of rose. Rub 
over the face with a soft cloth. 

FOR PIMPLES. — Thirty-six grains of bi-carbonate of soda, one 
drachm of glycerine, one ounce spermacite ointment. Leave the mixture 
on the face fifteen or twenty minutes, then wipe it off with a soft cloth. 

It is hardly necessary to say that cosmetics of all sorts should be 
strictly avoided while the face is under treatment. They would materially 
interfere with its efficacy. Many of them contain poisons. Even when 
free from these, they coarsen and deaden the skin by filling the pores and 
stopping their natural excretions, and also by preventing a free passage 
of air and sunlight to the skin. 

Small solid moles are most quickly removed by touching them with 
a pencil of nitrate of silver dipped in water and rubbing lightly on the 
affected spot. The surrounding skin may be protected with vaseline or 
wax. The caustic will not occasion pain, but turns the skin black where 



THE BEST COSMETICS. 509 

it touches and forms a scab, which comes off, leaving the mole lessened 
in size. In two or three weeks apply the nitrate again, and repeat at 
intervals until the mole disappears. Moles with an elastic neck of 
skin are best healed by tying waxed silk or a rubber band round the 
neck and tightening it daily till the mole drops off. 

Large, level moles should have a paste of salycilic acid rubbed up 
with four times as much vaseline bound on them with linen, held by 
adhesive plaster. The dressing is repeated every night until the mole 
whitens, when its skin is allowed to deaden and scale off. When the 
spot heals thoroughly the treatment is renewed until the mole is erased. 
Moles with fine veins apparent on the surface, or red, angry ones, should 
be submitted to a surgeon, as dangerous sores may result from unskilled 
handling. 

The possession and preservation of a good complexion, as we have 
seen, almost entirely depends on good health, care and a judicious selec- 
tion of palliatives for its ailments. These are legion, and for them I 
have selected a few well-known, but simple remedies, said to be efficacious 
in the majority of cases and hurtful in none. 

PRESCRIPTION FOR THE COMPLEXION. 

Among the many ailments, roughness and redness of skin are, 
perhaps, the most common. A lady of sixty and over, who has a beauti- 
fully clear and soft skin, tells me she was afflicted with these annoying 
complaints until she began the daily use of the following preparation : 
Dissolve or cut five cents 7 worth of gum benzoin in one pint of alcohol ; 
add two teaspoonfuls of this mixture to one quart of pure rain-water, and 
apply to the face with a soft cloth, or by putting a little in a basin of 
water. It will be found a preventive, as well as a cure for either ; also a 
very refreshing wash for the face after a tiresome journey or outing expe- 
dition, as it is soothing to the skin and a palliative for the effects of sun 
and wind. 

A good remedy for roughness, also tenderness of skin, is the well- 
beaten white of an egg. Bathe the face freely in the albumen, rubbing 
it well into the skin, and the wrong way of the wrinkles, if there are 
any, and let it dry on for some minutes ; then wash it off in tepid water, 
without soap, and dry the face thoroughly with a soft towel. This simple 
remedy can be applied daily, and is said to insure a clear, velvety skin 
for its user. By adding half a teaspoonful of sulphur, it will be found 



510 THE BEST COSMETICS. 

very efficacious for redness of skin. Apply at night, and do not go to 
bed until the thin paste it makes has thoroughly dried on. Remove in 
the morning in the same way as directed for the egg-bath ; be sure the 
face is dry and well cleansed before applying. 

Another highly recommended, though none too pleasant prescrip- 
tion, is a teaspoonful of sulphur dissolved in a cup of sweet milk. It can 
be applied to the skin with linen or the palms of the hands ; leave it on 
over night or remove after a short time with tepid water. In either case, 
allow it to dry over the skin before removing. A remedy for which much 
is claimed as a complexion beautifier, particularly for those skins with 
large pores, is barley paste, made of the white of one egg, one scant tea- 
spoonful of alum, and enough ground barley to mix into a thin paste. 
Apply at night ; not too often. 

BATHS OF WARM MILK. 

An old remedy, with whose good and beautifying qualities even the 
Roman ladies of ancient times were acquainted, is a nightly bath of warm 
milk. Wash the face in tepid water, dry it, and then lave many times 
with warm milk, until every pore is open and muscle smoothed ; wait 
some time before gently rubbing the face quite dry. Another simple 
lotion which is said to soothe, smooth and whiten the skin, is plain 
spirits of camphor much diluted with water. It can be used several 
times a day. 

The above lotions are also good for chapped or tanned skin. Lemon 
juice, buttermilk or apple vinegar will also be found effective and harm- 
less for the latter. It is, though, considered quite the thing to have the 
face and hands tanned ; thus telling to all beholders that one's purse has 
allowed her to pass the season at some summer resort or in the country. 

For chapped skin there are few, if any, better remedies than sweet 
cream. Should this not be available, try a lotion made of equal parts of 
pure glycerine and rosewater, or scented rain-water. This healing lotion 
can be applied at night, or, when the skin is very tender or sensitive to 
the air, before going out-doors. It will leave no trace, if plenty of time 
is allowed for it to dry in. Some claim that its efficacy as a preventive 
for chapped skins is enhanced by laying over it a slight powdering of 
pulverized orris root or rice powder. 

I am no advocate of the use of powder, but either of those mentioned 
is harmless ; therefore I can see no great harm in their use, or that of any 



THE BEST COSMETICS. 511 

pure face powder, when common sense rules the application. I have only 
a few words to say under this head, and they are these: Be sure the 
powder is harmless, and that it is washed off every night and before 
applying any healing lotion. 

Another desirable thing is to select a flesh-tinted powder, or better 
yet, a tint similar to your complexion ; that is, if your complexion has a 
rosy cast, choose a powder with a just perceptible pink tinge ; if a creamy 
white, a creamy tint, etc. You will thus avoid the dead, pasty look given 
by pure white powders, telling to every beholder that you are powdered. 

Freckles, which are said to denote an excess of iron in the blood, 
can be removed by frequently dampening the spots with a very strong 
solution of powdered saltpetre ; by moistening them often with the liquor 
made from allowing a tablespoon ful of grated horse-radish to stand in half 
a cup of buttermilk over night ; or by wetting them at frequent intervals 
in a strong solution of borax. 

LEMON JUICE AND SULPHUR. 

Here is an old-time remedy, said to be a preventive to sunburn and 
freckles, as well as a cure for the latter. When ready to retire, cleanse 
the face, dry it, and spread over it a thin paste made by squeezing the 
juice of half a lemon over one tablespoonful of sulphur. Use the ordi- 
nary flour of sulphur for this, as well as all sulphur remedies. Allow it 
to dry on well before going to bed. If it does what is claimed for it. very 
few spots will be visible the next morning, when the remnants of paste 
have been removed by clear water. Although most sulphur lotions are 
said to be beneficial to the skin, they should not be used oftener than 
twice a week ; the bleaching properties of the sulphur may be deleterious 
to the skin, if used too often. 

One of the most annoying ailments of all are the unsightly black- 
heads — comedones. To exterminate them, thoroughly steam or bathe 
the face with hot water ; then, while the skin is soft and in a relaxed 
condition, squeeze them out with a small, old-fashioned watch-key. After 
this rather disagreeable operation, the face should be bathed in u 
water, tenderly dried, and a soothing lotion applied. A solution of alum 
added to the water will assist in closing the pores from which the black- 
heads were expelled. 

Moles, moth-patches and superfluous hairs add their modicum 
blemish to many complexions. I think I am sate in asserting that the 



$& 



512 THE BEST COSMETICS. 



tweezers or electric needle are the only real extirpators for the latter. 
Either, if properly manipulated, will permanently remove them. One 
can, if she have the nerve, operate the tweezers herself, or trust them to a 
friend ; but the electric needle should be employed only by one versed in 
its use. Moles and moth patches, like pimples and suppurating blotches, 
are caused by some derangement of the system. Their treatment should 
be entrusted to a reliable physician only. 

Some one has said, " The most tantalizing trial incident to the excur- 
sion through this vale of tears is a redor shiny nose." Either can be cured 
only by removing the cause, bad circulation, bad digestion, ora" mirly- 
moirly " condition of the cuticle; and, I am sorry to say, not always then. 
Bad circulation can be removed by Turkish baths, massage and the loos- 
ening of all tight clothing ; bad digestion, by proper nourishment and 
medication ; and the damp condition of the cuticle by frequently bathing 
the offending member with some astringent and strengthening wash. 

If one's nose persists in assuming a red or purplish tinge when 
exposed to the cold, it will be found a good plan to bathe it freely in very 
cold water before leaving the house. Some say, " Make the cure sure by 
following this with a light layer of pure powder." 

ROUGH AND HARDENED SKIN. 

Now we come to one of the trials of growing old — wrinkles. When 
these have once made their appearance, it is almost impossible to rout 
them. It is said, massage treatment will do this ; but it requires the hand 
of a professional and the patience of Job to accomplish their removal in 
this way. Lanoline, wool-fat, made by extracting the fat from sheep's-wool 
by boiling in alcohol, is also said to be an effectual wrinkle-destroyer, as 
it feeds, strengthens and softens the skin. Before applying it or olive or 
sweet-oil, which are said to accomplish the same purpose, wash the face in 
warm water and dry it ; then dip the fingers in the fat and rub it well into 
the skin. As more depends on the rubbing than on the fat, but little of 
the latter is used as a treatment. 

A better way than either is to delay and prevent their coming, by 
keeping the skin soft and free from the oily waste the blood brings to the 
pores for egress by the cleansing action of the bath, not only for the face, 
but body. 



